


under a blanket of sundust

by justadreamfox



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kandreil - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Post-Canon, S'mores, a lil bit of kandreil smut, aftg summer, andrew is a big ole softie who loves his boyfriends, andrew's hot girl summer, badminton is an outdoor sport right?, blink and you'll miss them blow jobs, but aaron is trying okay?, erik gets ahold of a popsicle, established relationships - Freeform, exy in the background, femslash in chapter 3 y'all, jean has emotions, jerejean, jeremy and matt bromance amirite?, kevin talks about his boyfriends, no baby Foxes are killed or maimed by neil, no beta (sorry not sorry), pool floaties, renison, renison smut, some light twinyard drama, the prompts are the chapter titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:01:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25693207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/pseuds/justadreamfox
Summary: Andrew and his boyfriends spend their summer off at the Columbia house.aka: Andrew and his Hot Girl SummerThere's some JereJean, some Renison, but it's mostly Kandreil, and written for the AFTG Summer Prompts.
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Andrew Minyard & Renee Walker, Betsy Dobson & Andrew Minyard, Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau, Kevin Day & Jean Moreau, Kevin Day/Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick/Erik Klose
Comments: 89
Kudos: 256
Collections: AFTG Summer 2020





	1. hot day

**Author's Note:**

> Fourteen chapters for the AFTG summer 2020 challenge - one a day August 3rd - 16th!  
> This story is chronological, and happens in the same summer.

Andrew woke up alone and sweaty in the bed that he usually shared with his boyfriends. The sheet was tangled in his legs, and he had thrown the duvet onto the floor at some point in the middle of the night. 

It was hot, _so_ hot, and their ancient air conditioner was losing the battle against South Carolina’s most recent heat wave. Andrew would have had the system upgraded sooner if he’d realized, but they hadn’t spent the summer in Columbia in a while; last summer they were in Chicago helping Aaron and Katelyn with their newborn twins, and the summer before had been Neil’s graduation from Palmetto, and they’d gone on a road trip in celebration. 

This summer they’d agreed to spend their two months off here, and the other Foxes would pop in and out when they could. It was ideal, as Kevin would get some much needed quality time with his dad, and the three of them would have access to the Foxhole court to keep up with their training. Dan was living here full time and working as Wymack’s assistant coach, and Matt and Allison were on the same pro exy schedule they were and would be around all summer, too. 

So yeah, it was great, it was lovely - but it was fucking _hot_. The HVAC guy couldn’t fit them in until next week (apparently they weren’t the only ones who wanted to upgrade their system in the middle of this heat wave), so in the meantime, they were sweaty - indoors and out. 

Andrew dragged himself out of bed slowly, fumbling for his glasses, not bothering with a shirt. He shuffled down the hallway in his boxers, peeking into the other bedroom to see Kevin and Neil still asleep - Kevin buck naked and starfished in the middle of the bed, and Neil curled into a little ball at the edge. 

They usually all woke in a jumbled mess of arms and legs in their brownstone in Boston, Andrew tucked up against the wall, Kevin taking up too much space, Neil wrapped around one or both of them like an octopus. But their air con in Boston worked beautifully, and they kept the thermostat at a cool 68 degrees - conducive conditions for snuggling with the giant human space heater that was Kevin. 

They _had_ tried. They’d started off last night in bed together, but after a whole lot of tossing and turning and complaining (Kevin doing the complaining, Neil the tossing and turning) Andrew had kicked them both out. 

Andrew closed the bedroom door quietly and made his way to the kitchen, turning on the coffee pot and pulling out a large pitcher to fill with ice - pausing a moment to stick his head in the freezer. He had just propped himself up under the ceiling fan in the living room, iced coffee in one hand and his novel in the other, when Neil tumbled into the room in a t-shirt and running shorts, auburn hair sticking straight up and sneakers in hand. 

Andrew’s eyebrows shot up over his glasses. “It’s over a hundred degrees outside Neil.”

“I know,” Neil said, sitting on the edge of the couch next to him to lace up his shoes. 

“And you think it’s a good idea to go running?” 

Neil stilled for a second, then finished tying his second shoe and sat up. “Had nightmares,” he said. “I won’t go far, just a couple miles.” 

Andrew nodded. The nightmares didn’t happen as often anymore, but they all three had them - and they all three dealt with them differently. For Neil, nightmares meant running, his feet pounding the pavement in a path that wasn’t running away, a path that would bring him back to Andrew and Kevin, a path that would calm his rabbit heart.

“Fine, but take a bottle of water with you so you don’t pass the fuck out,” Andrew said. 

The corner of Neil’s mouth quirked up the tiniest bit at that. He detoured into the kitchen to grab a bottle, and was out the door. 

Hm. They were supposed to meet up with Matt and Dan and Allison at the pool today to ride out the heat. Neil would never cancel plans with his friends, but if today was a nightmare day then lounging around in public with his scars on display was probably the last thing he wanted to do.

Andrew shot off a text to Matt, and then went back upstairs. Kevin hadn’t moved, still splayed out on the bed naked and oblivious. That’s one thing that hadn’t changed from their college days - the man could sleep through a hurricane and waking him up was still a feat. 

Andrew sat on the edge of the bed. “Kevin.” Nothing. 

A little louder, “Kevin.” Nothing. 

“Kevin,” Andrew all but yelled as he shoved his boyfriend’s shoulder. 

Kevin grunted, and slowly blinked open his eyes. He smiled, closing them again. “Mm’ndrew,” he mumbled, reaching for Andrew with grabby hands. 

Andrew sighed and leaned down to kiss him on the corner of his mouth. “This what you want?” he murmured against Kevin’s lips, mouthing along his jaw. Kevin nodded against him and stretched. Andrew reached down, running his hand along the planes of Kevin’s abs. There was one sure fire way to wake Kevin up quickly, and- 

“UmmmHMMM,” Kevin moaned sleepily underneath him as Andrew wrapped his hand around his boyfriend’s dick. 

Kevin arched up and reached for him, but Andrew batted his hands away. “Too hot, hold still,” he said, and with that Andrew shifted down the bed, kissed Kevin’s hipbone, and then took his cock into his mouth. Andrew sucked hard and fast just like Kevin liked it, his hand wrapped around the base and twisting just so until Kevin sputtered out an inarticulate noise above him, tensed for a moment, and Andrew let go with his mouth to jerk him through his orgasm. 

It was too early for swallowing. 

Kevin was grinning down at Andrew, wide awake now, and Andrew grabbed the end of the sheet to clean off his stomach. “Can you wake me up like that every morning?” Kevin asked.

“No,” Andrew grunted. He stood and grabbed Kevin’s hand and pulled. “Get up.” Kevin flicked his gaze at Andrew’s boxers. Andrew rolled his eyes. “Not now, get up out of this bed.”

“Why?” Kevin grumbled as he sat up and tugged his hand out of Andrew’s to stretch and roll his neck. He yawned, looking around. “Where’s Neil?”

“Exactly,” Andrew said. 

“You make no sense,” Kevin grumped, and leaned forward for a kiss.

Andrew sighed, and kissed him. He really couldn’t refuse either of his boys - it was a not-so-secret secret and he was well aware that they took advantage of it. 

“Neil had a bad night - nightmares,” Andrew said after he had kissed away Kevin’s morning breath. 

“Oh. Is he running right now?”

“Yes. I cancelled our plans for the day and I have an idea, but I need to go pick up some things for it.”

Kevin frowned. “It’s a billion degrees outside.”

“Yes. Which is why I need you to get up.”

“Right. On it. I’ll make sure he’s not gone too long and I’ll make sure he eats.” 

“Exactly,” Andrew said again, and kissed Kevin one more time before he left.

  
  


***

Neil was tired and he was hot and he hadn’t slept well, which made him grumpy. 

He tried not to grump at Kevin when he’d gotten back from his run and his boyfriend had shoved an iced coffee into his hand. He tried not to grump at Kevin when he then proceeded to make him a smoothie. He tried not to grump at Kevin when he’d dragged him upstairs and started the shower for him - all the way on cold, no hot water needed thank you very much. 

Standing there naked in the bathroom Neil finally failed in his mission to not grump. “I _can_ manage to get in the shower by myself you know,” he snapped at Kevin.

“I know love, but why would you want to?” Kevin countered. 

Oh.

“So?” Kevin grinned.

“Yes,” Neil nodded. 

Kevin stripped out of his t-shirt and stepped out of his boxers and led Neil into their walk-in shower. The tiles were cool against his back when Kevin pushed him up against them, kissing the water off of his neck and his collarbones, tracing the hollows of his throat with his tongue. Kevin reached out to grab a towel from the rack behind them and dropped it to the floor of the shower, startling a laugh out of Neil. 

“Shut up, tile’s hard,” Kevin grinned as he knelt on the towel in front of Neil, and Neil shut up as Kevin sucked his cock into his mouth, the water sluicing down over his shoulders as he hollowed his cheeks and closed his eyes. Neil wrapped his fingers in his boyfriend’s dark, wet hair and gave in to the pleasure of it, sighing, and then moaning, and finally coming with a quiet gasp. 

He slid down the wall and sat under the water next to Kevin, linking their pinkies. “That helped,” Neil said finally. 

Kevin huffed a laugh. “I bet. We need to get Andrew later, he woke me up with a blow job this morning.” 

“What a sweetie,” Neil grinned. 

“I’m going to tell him you called him a sweetie.” 

“Don’t you dare. Where is he anyway?” 

“Doing a thing. He cancelled our plans for the day.” 

Ah. Of course he did. 

Kevin and Neil were on the couch trying to figure out the new exy video game Andrew had bought them last week as a joke when they heard Andrew pull into the driveway. Their phones buzzed simultaneously, and Kevin checked his first. 

“Andrew says stay inside,” Kevin said, his brow wrinkled. 

Neil was curious, but he shrugged and they went back to the game. Occasionally they would hear a muffled bang, and at some point Neil realized Andrew must be in the backyard. It was almost an hour later when their phones went off again. This time Neil checked. 

“We’re to put on bathing suits and come outside now,” he said, raising one eyebrow at Kevin. 

Doubly curious now, they did as they were told quickly before heading out the kitchen door, barely making it onto the back porch before halting. Neil’s mouth dropped open as he took it all in, and Kevin started laughing next to him. 

Andrew had bought a goddamned kiddie pool. 

Not just any kiddie pool, but a giant inflatable pool that took up half the backyard and had a huge fake palm tree in the middle of it spouting water up into the air. There were three industrial outdoor fans attached to the side of the deck that hadn’t been there yesterday, angled towards the pool to create a strong breeze, along with a bubble machine - _a bubble machine?_ \- that was merrily shooting iridescent bubbles into the sky. There was a cooler full of ice and wine coolers and Capri-Suns on a table next to the pool, along with koozies and a small speaker that was dutifully pumping out some tropical tunes. 

It was delightful, it was magical, but it was Andrew that Neil couldn’t tear his eyes away from. His boyfriend was lounging in the pool, grinning at them in a flamingo-print bathing suit, giant rainbow sunglasses on his face and a bright orange wine cooler in his hand. 

He looked ridiculous. He looked adorable. He looked edible.

“I think it’s Andrew’s turn,” Kevin said suggestively next to him. 

“In the pool?” Neil asked. 

“In the pool,” Kevin agreed.

God, Neil loved his boyfriends.


	2. swimwear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JereJean and Kevin & Jean and some just plain old Jean. 
> 
> Kevin talks about his boyfriends because I can't help myself.
> 
> Today's prompt is all in the title: swimwear.

Jean sat on the front porch, sipping a glass of semi-decent rosé, trying (and failing) to relax while he waited for Jeremy to get home. 

It’s not that Jean didn’t want to go to Columbia - he did. But it was complicated. Most of his wants were complicated. Probably because he had never been allowed to  _ want _ before Renee had waltzed into the Nest and brought him to salvation. 

That had been complicated too. Renee.  _ His savior.  _

He had been in awe of her. 

Sometimes it had been too much to look at her face.

Which, perhaps, was why they hadn’t worked out. 

They discovered they were much better as best friends, though Jean was often amused by the fact that poor Renee was stuck with him and Andrew as friends. He wasn’t sure what she had done in a past life to deserve that.

Then there was Kevin, which was, well, also complicated. Kevin was the closest Jean had to family, but while they had both healed in the last few years, they had done it apart. For a long time Jean thought they had been through too much, that there was too much resentment on his part, and too much guilt on Kevin’s. 

But then there was Jeremy. It had been Jeremy who had eventually convinced Jean to try therapy (it took three tries to find a therapist that could handle what Jean had seen and done in the Nest). It had been Jeremy who had convinced Jean to start talking to Kevin again, and eventually to Neil too. It had been Jeremy who had cracked him open and seen all of him, and had loved those parts of him too. 

Jeremy was the one thing Jean wanted that wasn’t complicated, and now, after three years together, Jean was starting to believe that he would get to keep him. 

They’d ended up on separate teams after graduation - Jeremy in San Diego and Jean in Los Angeles, and they’d bought a house halfway between, paying extra rent to room with single teammates when they needed to stay in their respective cities. Even with the tithe that Jean paid to the Moriyamas they could afford it. 

Jeremy’s team was one of the top exy teams in the country. Jean’s was mediocre, but he didn’t care: he’d had an offer from Houston - a better team, but it was too far from Jeremy. It had been no contest really. The monetary offers had been comparable, so Ichirou couldn’t complain, and Jean had never really cared about exy the way Kevin and Neil and Jeremy had. 

Exy was a job; Jeremy was his whole life. 

The rumble of Jeremy’s Jeep made an appearance before the Jeep itself did, and just like that Jean’s boyfriend was in the driveway, climbing out of his car and shouldering his duffle. 

“Hey,” he said, pausing to smile broadly up at Jean. 

“Hey yourself,” Jean said smoothly. 

“Whatcha drinking?”

“A lovely Cotes de Provence Cru.”

“Could you be any more of a cliché? You can’t just say ‘rosé’?” Jeremy teased.

“Are you serious? You are literally a blond surfer boy from California. You drive a jeep. You are a walking cliché.”

“Fair,” Jeremy laughed, and then he had dropped the duffle and taken the stairs two at a time and he was in Jean’s arms, and this was  _ home. _

Jeremy kissed him and kissed him, and then stole his wine glass and drained it.

“Really?” Jean huffed, but he didn’t let go of him. 

“Mmmm,” Jeremy said, kissing him again, tasting of flowers and wine. “I missed you.”

“It was only a week,” Jean said, but he had missed him too (and Jeremy knew it).

“Did you make me dinner?”

Jean did laugh then. He couldn’t cook. (Jeremy knew this too.) “I ordered pizza.”

“Excellent.”

After more kisses and more wine and one very large tomato and feta pizza, Jeremy plopped down onto the couch next to Jean and dropped a yellow plastic shopping bag in his lap. 

Jean clutched at it. “Did I forget a holiday?” 

“No, I just got you a thing. Open it,” Jeremy nudged him with his toe. 

Jean reached into the bag and pulled out a soft, thin bundle of fabric. It was colorful, and as he shook it out, the riotous patterns of flowers jumbled together came clear - swirls of pink roses and yellow chrysanthemums and red poppies. The background was black, which just made the flowers pop all the more. Jean held the thin shirt up - there was a zipper at the neck and the sleeves were long, and although it was stretchy it would be tight on him. 

“What is this?” Jean asked. 

“It’s a rash guard,” Jeremy said. “Surfers wear them.” When Jean just continued to stare at him in confusion, Jeremy clarified, “It’s a bathing suit, Jean.” 

“A bathing suit,” Jean repeated, staring at it. 

“Yup, and there’s another piece you left in the bag,” Jeremy said. 

Jean pulled out the tiniest little black swim trunks he had ever seen. “Really?” he huffed. 

“What can I say, I like your ass,” Jeremy was grinning when Jean looked up, but his gaze was intense on Jean. 

Jean looked back down at the scraps of fabric in his hands, considering. His scars weren’t as in your face as Neil’s, but they were there. Riko had mostly kept his handiwork behind the demarcation lines of his uniform, though there were a few along his jaw and a broken nose that could be blamed on exy. The real battleground was his torso - his chest and shoulders and back were covered with silvery lines, a web of abuse mapped out in stark relief even on his pale skin. Jean didn’t hide them, and any teammate he’d ever had and shared a locker room with had seen them - he had too much pride to skulk around the showers like he was ashamed. But they were flying to South Carolina tomorrow and Kevin had already said there’d be tons of swimming going on - he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t anxious about laying around in the sun with his scars on display. 

“Have I told you today that I love you?” Jean asked quietly. 

“Hmm,” Jeremy said. “I don’t know. Maybe you should say it again for good measure.”

Jean set the swimsuit aside and crawled forward, pushing Jeremy back into the couch with a growl. 

“I love you,” he said, kissing him. 

“I love you,” he said, running his hands under his shirt.

“I love you,” he said, and then they didn’t say any more words for a long while after that.

***

Jean’s floral rash guard was a hit. 

They’d spent their first day in Columbia lounging around and recovering from jetlag in Andrew’s backyard oasis - epic kiddie pool and all. Jean had seen Neil eyeing him, and apparently Andrew had seen it too, because the next morning he had disappeared with Jeremy in his ostentatious Maserati, coming home to drop a small shopping bag in Neil’s lap. Jeremy had winked at Jean when Neil pulled a bright orange rash guard of his own out of the bag and thrown a look at Andrew that Jean had been almost embarrassed to see. 

Now Kevin and Jean sat side by side on a giant boulder next to the shimmering water of an abandoned rock quarry-turned-swimming hole, watching their boyfriends and friends make fools of themselves. Jeremy, Matt, and Neil (in his orange rash guard) were diving off of a rock outcropping, while Andrew and Dan lounged off to the side rating their efforts zero out of ten - Andrew rating everything Neil did a ten, while Jeremy got fives and Matt zeroes. Dan was counteracting Andrew’s voting system by giving Matt tens on everything, even when he executed a truly painful sounding belly flop right after Jeremy’s perfect swan dive. Ridiculous. 

They’d been sitting there for some time in silence when Jean said “You seem happy.”

Kevin turned towards him a bit. “You seem surprised.”

Jean considered his response carefully. His relationship was better with Kevin - but still tentative. He didn’t want to misstep. 

But. 

“No, not surprised, it’s just....” Jean turned his gaze back to Andrew just as Neil flopped down next to him, letting Jeremy and Matt duke it out for the master diver title. “Those two are so intense with each other. I don’t know. Isn’t it hard, with three of you?”

“Are you worried about me?” Kevin asked. He didn’t sound angry, just curious, so Jean shrugged and tried to relax his posture a little to mirror Kevin’s ease. 

“Maybe,” Jean hedged. He was worried, but it was a strange feeling for him to have the capacity to worry about someone else - doubly so for that someone else to be Kevin. Kevin had been with Andrew and Neil for more than five years now, but the last few days had been the first time Jean had seen them all together in any real way. Intense was a good word for the way Andrew and Neil interacted - they moved around each other like small co-dependent planets and Jean wondered if Kevin was actually in the same orbit with them. 

He wouldn’t say any of this to Kevin, so instead he said “Jeremy is so overwhelming sometimes. Our relationship overwhelms me. I couldn’t imagine there being  _ two  _ of him.” 

Kevin chuckled at that, and then was quiet for a while. Jean thought that maybe he’d gone too far, but then Kevin sighed and leaned back on his hands and turned to Jean. 

“I don’t really know how to explain it, but I can try. I can tell you I don’t feel left out which is what I think you are asking me. I watched Neil and Andrew fall in love - they wouldn’t call it that, but that’s what happened Neil’s first year at Palmetto. They fell in love. But I was there too. I had so much going on, was so afraid and focused and selfish all at the same time...I don’t think I even understood what I was feeling. I realized later it felt like Neil was taking Andrew away from me, but it also felt like Andrew was taking Neil from me, and like I said - I was there the whole time, entwined in their lives. It’s strange to say, but I don’t think I could have understood how to love them if I hadn’t seen them figure out how to love each other first.”

“After Riko died I fell apart, like I had been holding all of these things together, and suddenly I didn’t need to anymore. They picked me up and held on to me. The both of them. After that...it wasn’t even a question. We fit. For some time I thought the three of us were so damaged that we needed more than one person to fill in the gaps. But that’s not it. That’s not what it is at all. I don’t need more than one person. I’m not broken. But I do need  _ them _ \- specifically them. I need Andrew and I need Neil and they need me. I think a shrink would tell me that I probably shouldn’t  _ need _ people like that, but I don’t know what else to call it,” he shrugged. 

Kevin cocked his head a bit, watching Neil and Andrew now. “I know how they are with each other, and I know how it might look.” He smiled here, and it was soft and sweet and not for Jean’s benefit. “But you don’t have to worry about me Jean. I fit too. I have never been so sure of anything in my life as I am of them. More sure than exy even, though I’ll call you a liar if you tell anyone that. For whatever fucked up reason I get to have them and it’s good, and yes I am happy and I will never let them go.” Kevin’s voice was fierce now.

“I understand,” Jean said, and watching Jeremy shining in the sun and laughing at something Matt said, he thought that maybe he did.

“I don’t really believe in fate,” Kevin said quietly. “I can’t believe in fate. But I do believe that the three of us were meant to find each other.”

Jean nodded slowly. “If fate is a thing, it has been cruel. I don’t know if I want to believe in a fate that put us all through what it did. But when I look at Jeremy I wonder if somehow the universe gave him to me to balance out all the things that came before.”

Jean blushed when he realized what he said, but Kevin smiled at him warmly. “Yeah. Maybe it did. You love him, huh?”

Jean thought probably his blush deepened at that, but he nodded.

“Mmmm,” Kevin said, and then his eyebrows lifted up over his sunglasses and his mouth quirked up and he turned to Jean. “Damn. I think we just like,  _ had a talk _ .”

“You are a menace Kevin Day,” Jean huffed, but he was pleased. “I think you did most of the talking.”

Kevin laughed at that, and pulled his sunglasses off, green eyes looking fondly into grey for the first time in a long time. “I’m glad you are here,” he said. 

“Me too,” Jean agreed, and he meant it. 


	3. beach day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was anyone wondering why Allison wasn't at the rock quarry last chapter? 
> 
> *smirk*
> 
> If you're here for the kandreil, sorry not sorry - this chapter is all renison.
> 
> Um also, smut ahead, note the upgraded fic rating above. 
> 
> Today's prompt: beach day

This whole week - hidden away in a luxurious beach-front rental with Allison - had been a revelation.

Renee was struggling to believe it wasn’t all just a fever dream. 

This thing between them had a history. The pieces of it had been there from the beginning, though neither of them had recognized it. There had been Seth of course, and that grief, and later, Jean. After Renee and Jean had broken up, after she had come back to Palmetto with a broken heart, Allison had been there, waiting. This thing between them had been waiting, and it was cultivated with touches and glances and moments that finally culminated in a few desperate kisses the last night of their senior year at Palmetto.

The next day Renee had set off for Tanzania and the Peace Corps, and Alison had moved to New York to sign with the Bearcats. The next two years had been emails and messages and a slow dawning of realization that they had wasted so much time. 

When Andrew and Neil and Kevin had invited everyone back to Columbia this summer, Renee and Allison decided to carve out a week to themselves first. It had been two years, and they had things to sort out between them before they were surrounded by Foxes. 

And oh, how they had sorted things. 

This week had been laughter and swimming and sunning and playing. There had been Allison’s tiny white bikini that was a little bit see-through when it got wet, and her blonde hair that curled wildly in the salt water. There had been lips and hands and words and kisses. 

This morning, on their last full beach day, they had walked hand in hand, and Allison - who never did anything shyly - had quietly asked Renee to move to New York with her. Renee - who never did anything wild - tackled Allison into the sand and kissed her and said yes. 

They made plans over lunch, eating fresh fruit and seafood with their fingers, and talking about the various non-profits where Renee would apply for jobs, about Allison’s condo, about maybe getting a dog. Renee made a joke about lesbians and U-Hauls, and Allison laughingly said it didn’t count since they were bisexual, and then proceeded to kiss cherry juice off of Renee’s lips.

That afternoon had been lazing in the sun, trying and failing to read novels as they distracted each other with their daydreams, with their fingers, with their lips, until finally the dark clouds rolling in over the ocean and the first drops of rain had driven them inside.

It had been a brilliant last day of their week at the beach together, and now Renee and Allison were curled up on the oversized lounge chair in the screened-in porch, watching the thunderstorm whip the ocean waves into a powerful crescendo. Allison was tucked into Renee’s side and she smelled of salt and sunscreen and flowers, and it was driving her to distraction.

Renee kissed her temple and Allison hummed in return, turning a little in her arms, and Renee took advantage of the new angle to capture her lips, drawing her into a slow, soft, languid kiss. A loud boom of thunder startled them apart, and they laughed at each other. Renee pulled back a little to look down at Allison splayed out next to her, in a silky black bikini, her skin glowing with the sun she had soaked up. 

“I don’t want to leave tomorrow,” Allison murmured, her smokey grey eyes liquid, and Renee had to hum agreement with the sentiment as she leaned down to kiss her neck and lick at her collarbones. 

Allison rolled her head back to give Renee better access and sunk her hands into Renee’s short lavender hair. “I could call the agent and see if we can keep the rental for another week.” 

“Tempting,” Renee said, as she licked Allison’s shoulder and reached behind her neck to untie her bikini top. “But Jean will only be in town for another week, and I haven’t seen him or Andrew in two years.” 

Allison gasped a little when Renee finally divested her of her top and brushed fingertips across one nipple, and then the other. Allison grinned up at her and shimmied a bit, and her breast moved deliciously under Renee’s hand. “You’d rather see Jean and Andrew than these?” 

Renee leaned down slowly, looking directly into Allison’s eyes as she licked a nipple. “Oh, I’m planning to take this,” she licked the other nipple, “and this,” she pressed up and kissed Allison deeply, sliding her tongue against hers before capturing her bottom lip between teasing teeth and pulling back to say “and you. Planning to take all three of you with me.” 

Allison giggled softly. “Me and my boobs?” 

“Yep,” Renee agreed, trailing a hand down Allison’s belly, fingers stopping at the edge of of her bikini bottoms for a moment before tucking under the edge of them, reaching lower to just graze the curls hidden there. She leaned back in to nuzzle Allison’s neck, licked a path up to her ear. “I’m going to fuck you now,” Renee whispered huskily into her ear. 

“God yes,” Allison moaned in response, arching up against her. “Here?” she rasped out as Renee circled lower in those curls, finding her clit with one finger. 

“Here,” Rene agreed. She stood up, and Allison protested the loss of her touch, but Renee quickly slid her own bathing suit off and then divested Allison of the rest of her bikini and then they were both gloriously naked, Renee back on the lounge with Allison wrapped in her arms and she thought she would never tire of feeling the warmth of this naked girl in her arms. 

Renee kissed her, and it was more tongues and teeth and roving hands now. She licked and nipped her way down Allison’s jaw, her neck, traced the curve of her breast with her tongue, and finally took her nipple into her mouth, the bud peaking under her tongue and the gentle scrape of her teeth, Allison murmuring encouragingly above her. Renee pulled off and kissed her other nipple, then licked her way gently down Allison’s belly, pushing her knee aside and sliding down her body as she went. 

Renee gave Allison no warning before plunging her tongue into her velvet folds, tasting the wet and heat already gathered there. Allison arched up with a strangled moan as Renee sucked her clit hard, and Renee would smile at that sound but her mouth was busy, her sucking turning to long steady licks around Allison’s clit as she slid a finger and then two fingers into her warmth. 

Allison was writhing and her moans and gasps played counterpoint to the rain pounding on the roof above them. Renee pulled away, kissed Allison’s thigh, and looked up. “I have an idea, but I need your mouth on me first.” 

“Anything,” Allison babbled, bucking her hips a little under Renee at the loss of her tongue and fingers. 

“Can I sit on your face?” Renee asked in a deceptively sweet voice. 

“Umm, yeah,” Allison stuttered. “But how do we do that?” 

“Mmm,” Renee hummed, wiping her mouth off on Allison’s other thigh. “Here, slide down a bit.” 

Allison did and Renee crawled over her, pausing to kiss her fiercely before pressing her own knees to either side of Allison’s beautiful face, Renee’s legs tucked under Allison’s shoulders. Allison gripped one of her hands tightly, and Renee braced herself with the other on the edge of the lounge above Allison’s head. 

Renee felt deliciously wicked as she let her head roll back, the air on her naked breasts, the thunder rumbling and the rain falling, and then Allison leaned up to her, her clever hot tongue circling her clit and Renee thought she might break into a million pieces.

“Allison,” she moaned out, as another burst of thunder stole her words. Allison tightened her other hand on Renee’s thigh, and then pressed her tongue into her, fucking her softly and wetly with it before licking a strip back up to her clit and sucking it into her mouth and Renee groaned and struggled to hold herself up. Her orgasm was building and this wasn’t what she wanted yet. Renee pulled away reluctantly, grasping at her breath, rearranging herself to kiss Allison, her belly quickening hotly at the taste of herself on Allison’s lips. 

“That was a good idea,” Allison breathed against her as Renee licked the edge of her mouth.

“That wasn’t the idea,” Renee said, reaching down to slip her fingers into Allison again as she devoured her mouth. 

“Here, sit up,” Renee managed to huff out after a minute. She pulled Allison forward, and then slid them together sitting up in the middle of the lounge, one thigh draped over Allison’s and her foot tucked around her. She pushed her other thigh under Allison’s leg, so Allison’s thigh was draped over hers. The result was their legs wrapped criss-cross around each other and they were pressed intimately together - so close that when Renee reached down to slide two fingers back into Allison, she could feel the back of her hand against her own clit. They both gasped a little at the contact, and Renee grinned ferociously at her. “Think we can manage to come at the same time?” 

“Oh,” Allison’s eyes were bright and glowing. “Fuck yes,” she rasped, and then her fingers were in Renee too, and she was rubbing insistent circles around Renee’s clit with her thumb, and Renee mirrored her movements. 

With that everything was happening at once and it was overwhelming and messy and awkward and beautiful. They writhed against each other, kissing when they remembered to, missing each other’s mouths and clacking teeth, mouthing at each other’s necks instead as they chased their orgasms. 

Suddenly Renee was at the brink and she gasped “Wait, I’m going to come, stop,” and Allison gasped back “I’m right there with you,” and she wrapped her free arm tightly around Renee and pulled her towards her in one swift move that tumbled them both backward, and Renee fell apart as her orgasm tore through her, as she rode Allison’s fingers through it, as she felt Allison clenching around her own fingers and gasping desperately under her. 

It was years and decades and eons before they stilled, chasing their breath against each other’s faces. Renee was boneless and sated and happy, and she thought maybe she should shift off of Allison, that she must be smushing her, but she couldn't move and Allison wasn't complaining. 

Eventually Allison laughed, and Renee managed to push herself up on her elbow so she could see her face. “I like your ideas,” Allison said with another soft laugh, tucking a stray piece of hair behind Renee’s ear. 

Renee huffed in agreement, and pillowed her head on Allison’s belly, lulled by her girlfriend’s fingers running softly through her hair and the sound of the waves and the rain and the wind in her ears. 

It was good to be home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What does a lesbian bring on a first date?
> 
> A U-Haul. 
> 
> (get it?)


	4. outdoor sports

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is just pure unadulterated FLUFF.
> 
> Kev and Neil talking about their boyfriend, and Renee arrives in Columbia.
> 
> Today's prompt: outdoor sports

Kevin woke up to something warm and slightly damp pressed against his side. He sighed contentedly when he smelled the distinctive herbal scent of Neil’s shampoo, and rolled sideways to wrap his arms around his boyfriend. 

“Morning,” he mumbled into Neil’s hair. “Why’re you wet?”

“Shower’d,” Neil said, tucking his face into Kevin’s neck and throwing a leg and an arm around him. 

Ah, yeah, it was good to have a working air conditioner again. 

Kevin pulled him tighter and kissed his forehead. “Why have you already showered? Time’s it?” Kevin asked, kissing his temple now, his ear.

Neil hummed a bit. “Well, I went for a run, got gross, took a shower - I normally do after I run - and it’s after ten-thirty. You’ve slept the entire day. It’s basically tomorrow now.”

“Ass,” Kevin said, and he nipped Neil’s earlobe. “It’s not even noon. It’s still morning.”

“Maybe,” Neil said. He started kissing gently at Kevin’s neck, along his jaw. 

“Where’s Andrew?” Kevin asked, trailing his fingers lazily down Neil’s shoulder blade. 

“Oh,” Neil huffed out a little laugh and repositioned himself so he was draped over Kevin. “Yeah, so he is in the backyard putting up the badminton net.” 

Kevin blinked. “The what?”

“Yep,” Neil grinned. “He was going to get a volleyball net, but Jeremy pointed out that there really wasn’t enough space for that, you know, what with the kiddie pool and all.”

“Jeremy’s not wrong. Why don’t we just go to the sand volleyball courts at the park?”

“Mmm. I think he wants to stay near the house since Renee is getting in today.”

“Right. So, badminton?”

“Oh yeah, so. Andrew asked what took up less space than volleyball that wasn’t horseshoes that he could - and I quote - ‘watch my boyfriends play while I lounge in the pool.’”

“Huh.”

“Yeah, and then Jeremy laughed and said - and I quote again - ‘Andrew are you having a hot girl summer?’”

“Oh my god.”

“Yep,” Neil agreed.

“He didn’t”

“Did,” Neil affirmed.

“Is Jeremy still alive?”

“Yep, he is currently helping Andrew put up the badminton net.”

“Okay so, continue.”

“Right, so before Andrew could answer that question - though I am not sure he would answer it anyway - speaking of which, did you know what a ‘hot girl summer’ was? I had to google it after Andrew left.”

Kevin let out a fond sound of exasperation. “Badminton, Neil.”

“Shit, sorry. Yeah, so Jean just looked up and said ‘badminton’ before anyone could say anything about a hot girl summer, and Andrew just pointed at him in agreement, picked up his keys, and left, so I went on a run and when I got back he and Jeremy were in the backyard setting it up.”

“So now we have a badminton net,” Kevin mused. 

“Now we have a badminton net,” Neil agreed, stretching up to kiss him and then nuzzling back into his neck again. 

They lay there wrapped up in each other and it was nice and Kevin’s brain was slowly coming fully awake, thinking about Andrew and his kiddie pool and his new flamingo bathing suit and now badminton.

“Neil?”   


“Mmmph?”

“Do you think Andrew might actually be having a hot girl summer?”

Neil rolled onto his back, head pillowed on Kevin’s shoulder, and looked up at the ceiling. “Maybe? This is the first summer with his new tattoos, and he’s been pretty relaxed and…” Neil twirled his hand in the air idly.

“Playful?” Kevin suggested.

“Yeah, playful,” Neil agreed. “Andrew’s version of playful.”

Kevin grabbed Neil’s fingers out of the air and twined them with his own as he thought about that. Andrew had started getting his forearms tattooed last year. It had taken some time and multiple sessions to finish the intricate design, and it was only last month that the whimsical tapestry of peonies, bees, and hummingbirds had been completed. If you looked closely enough there were three small orange foxes hidden cleverly amongst the flowers, along with a key and a small chess piece that looked suspiciously like a queen. 

Andrew had mostly abandoned his armbands once the tattoos were completed, and if you could still feel the heavy lines of scarring if you were close enough to touch, well...no one got that close except Andrew's boyfriends. 

“Up!” Kevin commanded, rolling off the bed and pulling Neil with him. 

“Where are we going?”

Kevin stole another quick but thorough kiss once he had Neil on his feet and grinned at him. “We’re going to go kick Jean and Jeremy’s ass at badminton so our boyfriend can lounge around and admire our manly physique and prowess.”

“Oh my god. Does this mean we’re gonna have a hot girl summer too?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely, Josten.”

***

To Kevin’s chagrin, it was relatively hard to thoroughly kick someone’s ass in badminton. The damned shuttlecock -  _ which, who even named it that? _ \- couldn’t be rocketed off a racket at even a fraction of the speed of an exy ball, and the four of them were just too damned good at hitting things with rackets for there to be any real competition. 

It would have been thoroughly unsatisfying, except that Andrew did exactly as promised: lounged in the pool, this time in a pair of lobster-print swim trunks that they had also never seen before, along with his rainbow sunglasses perched on his nose. 

Truth was, Kevin quite liked being watched by his boyfriend. 

(Hot girl summer indeed.)

The bubble machine was going, along with some strange sea shanty playlist that Andrew had found on Spotify, and it all felt surreal and ridiculous and  _ good _ . 

They were just about to break for a late lunch when Allison and Renee finally arrived, and it was a riot of hellos and smiles. 

Kevin stood back, Neil leaning into his side as they watched Andrew - who hadn’t seen his friend in over two years - step out of the kiddie pool. 

“Renee,” he said. 

“Hi Andrew,” Renee smiled at him bright and warm, and they murmured something to each other that Kevin couldn’t hear and suddenly Andrew stepped closer to her and pulled her in for a very wet hug. Renee laughed a startled laugh, rested her hands on Andrew’s shoulders, and hugged him back.

Alison looked surprised, and so did Jean and Jeremy - though they hid it better. 

Kevin just smiled, and he felt Neil relax against him, and he buzzed with warmth to see his boyfriend hugging his friend - probably for the first time ever - in a dripping wet lobster bathing suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you, like Neil, do not know what a 'hot girl summer' is, have no fear - google is here <3


	5. sun lotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am a goddamned fluffy cupcake and Andrew deserves to have friends. 
> 
> Andrew & Renee here, more fluff for your heart. 
> 
> Chapter prompt: sun lotion

Renee let out an inelegant grunt as she adjusted her position on the giant unicorn floaty. 

She truly couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this sore. Kevin and Neil had gotten antsy yesterday and insisted they head up to Palmetto to scrimmage. They had split into two teams - Andrew, Kevin, Neil (playing dealer) and Matt, versus Renee, Jeremy, Allison, Dan, and Jean. (Andrew and his boys had agreed to be outnumbered if they got to play on the same side.)

Renee had manned her goal and marveled: they had all gotten so _good_ in the several years since going pro. Truly they’d always been good - this was the cream of the crop of the original Foxes they were talking about - but some of the moves she saw last night had been next level, and watching Allison navigate the court like a second home had been sexy as all get out.

Overall it had been a blast - Renee had missed being on the court - but it had been quite some time since she had played, and she woke up this morning with stiff and aching muscles. Kevin had stayed the night in Palmetto so he could spend the next day with his dad, but the rest of them had agreed that practice had earned them a lazy day, and they’d met up at the Columbia house to caravan to the rock quarry. 

Andrew had tossed several bags of gear into the back of Matt’s truck, which, upon arrival at the swimming hole, had turned out to be oversized animal themed floaties - one for each of them. Andrew took great pleasure in assigning them to their new owners. 

Renee had been quite pleased with her unicorn, and she and Andrew had managed to drift together out on the crystalline water, his giant pink gummy bear raft bumping idly against her rainbow dipped unicorn inner-tube. 

Jeremy and Matt had both ended up with dragons and were currently battling it out on the other side of the quarry. Jean on his llama and Neil on his sea turtle were floating just out of splashing range but egging them on. Dan and Allison were sunning up on the rocks, Dan using her toucan floatie as a pillow, while Allison had her feet elevated on the back of a rather out-of-proportion elephant. 

It was idyllic. 

Floating here, with their other Foxes nearby but just out of earshot, it reminded Renee of their laps around the court in college, planning for the impending zombie apocalypse. It brought a smile to her lips. 

“Jean said you are having a hot girl summer,” Renee said, tilting her head back and feeling the sun soak into her skin. 

Andrew snorted, and lazily splashed water at her. 

Renee laughed. “It does seem that way, though. Things seem good.” She didn’t phrase it as a question, but it was one, if Andrew wanted to take it. It had always been their way - no pressure, no judgement, no requirements beyond honesty and respect.

“Things are good,” Andrew eventually said. When he didn’t elaborate, Renee let it drop, satisfied. 

They watched as Matt crashed into Jeremy and went flying off his floatie, Jeremy hooting in triumph as he grabbed the now abandoned blue dragon and paddled wildly away with his spoils. 

“I never realized before how truly amazing it would be to get Jeremy and Matt in the same room together - not playing exy I mean,” Renee mused. 

“We are not in a room,” Andrew remarked. 

“Flooded rock quarry then. We should have done this years ago. It’s like an adult play date - they are so happy.”

Matt had swum stealthily under the water to ambush Jeremy, which had resulted in both of the dragon floaties flying untethered into the air and now the two men were swimming desperately in opposite directions for their steeds. 

“I forget that you know him so well,” Andrew said. 

“Hmm, Jeremy you mean. Yes. He was around quite a bit whenever I was visiting Jean,” Renee agreed. 

Andrew snorted again, and Renee splashed him this time in retaliation. 

“Not like that,” she said.

“Sure,” Andrew said. 

Renee laughed and splashed him again. Andrew glared at her and rolled over onto his stomach on the gummy bear. It was quite a production, but he just managed to not tip himself entirely into the water. 

She had missed this.

Missed Andrew. 

She’d felt a small, sweet ache in her heart watching him these last three days. He had changed, and it had happened while she was gone. It must have been that time apart that made it so startling. She could imagine that if she’d been there these last two years it would have been gradual. She would have seen how he had softened, watched as he settled into his relationship with his boyfriends, known when he’d decided to tattoo over his scars and abandon his knives.

These were things that - if she had been there - they would have talked about. Andrew didn’t talk to many people, not really, but he had always talked to her. It wasn’t just the hug - which, if she was honest, had taken her entirely off guard. It was the way he was moving around in the world, the ease he seemed to have found in his own skin, the comfort he had in Kevin and Neil. Renee had all the faith in the world in Andrew - she had always seen him for the intensely loyal, sentimental, and loving man that he was. The difference now was that Andrew seemed to be seeing himself that way too.

“So,” Andrew said, pulling her out of her thoughts. “Allison.”

Renee smiled softly and rolled her head towards him. “Yes, Allison.”

“Hmmm,” Andrew said, paddling now too to keep their floaties close.

“Are you surprised?” she asked. 

“Never,” Andrew scoffed. “Not a day in my life.”

“Liar,” Renee said happily. 

“Only sometimes,” Andrew agreed. 

There was a giant splash and some squawking, and they both turned their heads to see that Matt, Jeremy, and Neil were chasing after Jean, all floaties abandoned to the wild as Jean executed a truly impressive butterfly to escape them. 

“Children,” Andrew sighed. 

“Yes,” Renee agreed, “but they are ours.”

Andrew didn’t argue with that. After a few minutes he reached into the cupholder on his raft and pulled a small bottle of sun lotion out and started waving it at her. “I need some of this on my back.”

“You want me to get Neil over here?” Renee asked.

“No. You can do it,” Andrew said. 

Renee froze. It was just a millisecond, and she didn’t think Andrew caught it under those giant sunglasses of his. Even after all this time Renee was stealthy, and she said a small prayer for her instincts that had kicked in and unfrozen her face just as quickly. She managed a slight smile, forcing the sting in her eyes and the choked up feeling in her throat to recede. 

_Oh, Andrew._

“Of course,” she said, and Renee was quite impressed with how steady her voice was. She was pretty sure that - aside from sparring together - Andrew had never willingly asked her to touch him. 

Renee lifted herself on the edges of the unicorn she was splayed across, trying not to groan embarrassingly as her muscles protested. She let her legs slide through the inside of the inner-tube and paddled closer to Andrew, taking the bottle out of his hand. She hooked her arm through the loop on the side of his raft, and squirted some of the sun lotion into her hand. She couldn’t help herself from affirming, “This is okay?” 

“Yes Renee,” Andrew said, “it’s fine.” 

She wouldn’t ask again; she trusted him to know. Carefully, but not tentatively, she spread the sunscreen across his shoulders and upper back, working her way slowly lower, making sure all of his back was covered. It only took a moment, but Renee was pretty sure neither she nor Andrew took a breath for the entire time. 

“Good?” she asked, capping the sun lotion carefully and dumping it back into the cupholder on the gummy bear. 

“Good,” Andrew agreed breezily. 

Renee closed her eyes, smiling and giddy in the sunshine, floating with her friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just want y'all to know that every single one of these pool floaties exists in real life <3


	6. picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean deserves all the things. 
> 
> This one's jerejean y'all.
> 
> Prompt: picnic

Jeremy was nervous. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to, but being with Jean over the last three years had sparked a lot of new feelings he wasn’t accustomed to. 

Like falling head over heels in love with a guy. That had been a new one. 

That particular feeling may or may not have resulted in several drunk and confused conversations on his bed back at USC, bookmarked by an amused Sara and slightly more empathetic Laila. It’s not that Jeremy hadn’t noticed men before Jean. Really it was hard not to notice them when you were captain of a division one exy team and surrounded by fit, young bodies - but that was a normal, straight thing to notice, right? 

After all, Jeremy liked women - he loved them - and they loved him back. He’d had a string of really charming girlfriends since high school, and had managed to part with most of them on amicable terms. The sex was good; he liked boobs and soft skin and the smell of girl shampoo in his face in the morning. So yeah, if he had also noticed things about the other half of his teammates - like the way Cortez’s biceps flexed when he combed his hair wrapped in nothing but a towel, or the way that Charlie’s ass moved in his shorts when he bent over to pick up his racket, or the way that Rahim’s chiseled jaw looked like it could cut glass - well, that was just normal appreciation for the human physique.

It was Jean though, that had unsettled the balance of Jeremy’s world, and while Jean was pretty to look at, it wasn’t just his lean muscles and stormy grey eyes that had kept Jeremy awake at night. It was his earnest intensity, the way Jean would huff a quiet, surprised laugh at Jeremy’s jokes, the shy way that Jean tried to fit in to his new life with the Trojans.

At the time Jeremy told himself he was trying to help Jean adjust, that he would spend just as much time with anyone who had gone through what Jean had and joined their team in the middle of a school year. It wasn’t until one late night sitting on the floor of their dorm room, sleepy and talking about nothing and everything, and it had been the most natural thing in the world for Jeremy to lean over and kiss Jean.

Jean had kissed him back, and in that moment Jeremy’s whole world adjusted around the axis of Jean’s lips.

It was the next day that Sara had giggled while Laila kindly explained that no, straight boys didn’t tend to appreciate the physique of their male teammates in quite such a thirsty way as Jeremy was describing. She’d texted him some links about “bisexuality” and “pansexuality,” and Jeremy had perused them, decided that the idea of pansexuality suited him, cataloged that information as something more useful if he ever wasn’t dating Jean - because really, why else would he have to define his sexuality for someone? Either way, it was moot, because Jeremy knew exactly who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Which was why, sitting in this beautiful park with Jean on a blanket and a rather decadent picnic spread out between them, Jeremy was nervous.

Because what if Jean said no?

This wasn’t a new idea, what he wanted to do. He’d thought about it from the moment they’d graduated, but it seemed too soon - fresh out of college, on the precipice of their pro careers. But the past two weeks here watching Andrew and Kevin and Neil, Jeremy had felt yet another new emotion: jealousy. Those three lived together, played together, traveled to games together. Jeremy wanted that with Jean.

“I like this,” Jean said, leaning sideways on one elbow, careful not to upset his wine glass as he repositioned himself closer to Jeremy. “I have never done this before.”

“A picnic?” Jeremy asked, blinking at him, though he shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Yes, a picnic,” Jean agreed, smiling at him.

“We’ve taken food to the beach before, back home,” Jeremy said, though he didn’t really know why he said it because this had been the whole point - he wanted this to be something special.

“Yes, but this is-” Jean waved his hand around them. “The trees and the moss and and the picnic basket and the wine glasses,” he said, air toasting Jeremy. “It’s romantic. I like it."

Jean said it matter of fact, as he said most things, but Jeremy could still feel the blush crawling across his cheeks. Neither of them were the romantic type really, but Jeremy was starting to wonder if maybe he should have done something like this sooner.

Jean looked relaxed and beautiful in the dappled sunlight and as Jeremy looked at him, suddenly all of his anxiety melted away. He had always been the type to figure out what he wanted and to go after it, to make it happen. This was no different. He had planned to wait - even had a bottle of actual champagne from actual France tucked into the bottom of the picnic basket along with a package of the rose flavored mochi that Jean adored (and that Jeremy’d had to go to three different stores in Columbia to find). But just like their first kiss, it was the most natural thing for it to be _now_ , before they had even finished the first glass of chablis.

Jeremy started to reach into the pocket of his shorts, but before he could say anything Jean turned towards him, took a sip of his wine, and casually said, “I was thinking we should get married.”

Jeremy gaped at him, and couldn’t think of one word to say, which was very un-Jeremy-like.

Jean lifted a hand. “Yeah, I know, but hear me out. I think that we would have a better chance of getting on the same team and staying together if we are married, and I’m not going to lie - I’ve been somewhat jealous watching Kevin and his boyfriends and knowing that when summer is over the three of them are going back to the same home and the same city and the same team. I know we have our house in San Clemente, and I love it there, but most weeks we only get one or two nights together, and some weeks we get nothing. I want more.” 

Jeremy was still staring at him, he knew he was, but all the words he had prepared had fallen out of his brain. (He thought that maybe the words he had planned sounded a lot like the words Jean had just said.) God, he loved this man.

Jean frowned a little at Jeremy’s continued silence. “Did I just fuck up? Jeremy? Should I have done a proposal or something? Planned a picnic maybe? I just - you know how I feel about you, but I can say those parts too.”

Jeremy nodded slowly, still searching for his words, and apparently Jean took that as an affirmation that yes, he wanted to hear those parts too, which is not what he meant, but. Jean sat up and put his wine aside, reached forward and took one of Jeremy’s hands in his, and with the other he took his sunglasses off, and reached forward to take Jeremy’s off too. Suddenly Jeremy found himself being gazed at very intently by his favorite pair of grey eyes.

“I love you. You are the person I want to wake up next to every morning. My happiness is in making you happy. You are the most real thing in my life and I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of it without you. I don’t think we need a marriage to prove that, but I want to marry you anyway. I would quite like to call you my husband, I think. I don’t know how to say these things perfectly, but I think you know them already, yes?” 

Jeremy squeaked. He tried to make a different noise, and then he just squeaked again, which made him laugh, and Jean’s confused look made it worse, and Jeremy belatedly realized that Jean had just proposed to him and if he didn’t stop laughing this was going to go very badly, and since he still seemed unable to form words he leaned forward and kissed him.

Jeremy distracted him with his lips and his tongue, which did the job of distracting _him_ too, and he barely managed to remember to reach into his pocket with his free hand.

He pulled back, and smiled. “Jean,” he said, and opened his hand. Jean looked down. Jeremy had four rings in his palm - two were simple silver bands, the other two were navy blue silicone. 

“Jeremy,” Jean said softly, still looking down at the rings in his palm. 

Jeremy shrugged. “I figured the silver ones could be for every day, and the silicone for when we are on the court.”

Jean looked up into his eyes again. “I fucked up your proposal,” he said, the little frown back in place.

“Naw,” Jeremy smiled, and he leaned back in to kiss that frown away. “You made it perfect.”


	7. roller skates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, where is Aaron did you ask?
> 
> Twinyard drama ahead. 
> 
> Prompt: roller skates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KEY:  
> Aaron  
>  **Andrew**  
>  Kevin  
>  _Neil_

iMESSAGE

[AARON, ANDREW]

Aaron: i facetimed with nicky today

**Andrew: congratulations**

Aaron: don’t be a dick

**Andrew: what do you want aaron, i am roller skating**

Aaron: you are not

**Andrew: fine. everyone else is roller skating, i am drinking beer and watching them fall down**

Aaron: everyone else?

**Andrew: neil, kevin, matt, dan, allison, renee, jeremy, jean**

Aaron: the fuck. everyone is in columbia? You didn’t tell me

**Andrew: sure, if you think that’s everyone**

Aaron: you are still being a dick. 

**Andrew: shrug**

Aaron: andrew you can’t just type shrug

**Andrew: shrug**

Aaron: fuck, anyway. nicky said he and erik are going to be in columbia next week.

**Andrew: not a secret**

Aaron: i want to come down while he is in town

Aaron: andrew?

**Andrew: do what you want, i am not in charge of you**

Aaron: it would just be me. katelyn would stay here with the girls

**Andrew: okay**

Aaron: is that a yes?

**Andrew: i reiterate, i am not in charge of you**

Aaron: asshole. can you just give me an answer?

**Andrew: i am not currently in possession of the asshole title in this family**

Aaron: fuck, andrew

Aaron: wait, are you talking about christmas?

Aaron: andrew? I thought we had moved past that

**Andrew: oh did we move past that? I must have missed it**

Aaron: i apologized to you

**Andrew: apologies mean nothing, and i am not the one you hurt**

Aaron: fine. but i don’t believe that you aren’t still mad if you didn’t bother to tell me nicky was going to be in the states. 

**Andrew: believe what you want**

Aaron: UGH. what do i need to do to fix this?

**Andrew: I am not the one you need to be talking to if you want to fix it**

Aaron: fuck

NEIL’S PHONE

[INCOMING CALL: AARON]

_ “Aaron.” _

“Neil. Why are you out of breath?”

_ “I’m roller skating.” _

“Oh, huh. I thought that was a joke.”

_ “Is something wrong?” _

“What? No. Um - I just realized Andrew is still upset about what happened at Christmas.”

_ “Hold on Aaron, let me - ow, no, DAN! Take over with Matt.” _

“What are you even doing?”

_ “Roller skating, I told you. Hold on… okay now, I’m off the rink. What’s wrong?” _

“Why do you keep asking me that?”

_ “You only call me when something is wrong.” _

“Oh. Well. I just found out that Nicky is coming to Columbia. Andrew didn’t tell me.”

_ “Okay.” _

“Is he mad about Christmas?”

_ "Not sure mad is the right word. Have you two not talked about this?” _

“He said he’s not the one I should be talking to about it.”

_ “Okay.” _

“Josten, fuck. Does he mean you?”

_ “How do you not know the answer to that question Aaron?” _

“I don’t know! I didn’t realize this was still a thing.”

_ “Maybe that’s part of the problem.” _

“Okay fine, I’m an asshole. Is it you or Kevin I need to talk to?”

_ “Kevin.” _

“Oh.”

_ “Yeah.” _

“Okay. Thanks.”

_ “Yeah. Bye Aaron.” _

[CALL ENDED]

  
  


KEVIN’S PHONE

[INCOMING CALL: AARON]

“Yes?”

“Hey Kevin.”

“Aaron.”

“You aren’t out of breath.”

“What?”

“Are you roller skating?”

“Uh, yes?”

“How did that even happen?”

“Huh?”

“Roller skating. Seems an odd choice.”

“Oh. Uh. Jeremy and Matt got into a thing about all the experiences Jean and Neil had never had and, well, here we are.”

“Had you been roller skating before?”

“No.”

“So why wasn’t this about your experiences too?”

“I don’t know Aaron. I think people forget I grew up in the Nest too. Is this why you called me?”

“Ah. No.”

“So?”

“So, Andrew didn’t tell me Nicky was going to be in the States next week.”

“So?”

“So, apparently it’s because of what happened at Christmas.”

“Oh. I…”

“Kevin. Are we good? I didn’t-”

“Do we have to do this right now?”

“I don’t think Andrew is going to let me come to Columbia next week if you don’t say it’s okay.”

“Ah. So that’s the only reason you have something to say.”

“No, Kevin. Fuck.”

“What then Aaron? I’m on roller skates standing in the middle of a fucking skating rink. Now isn’t really the time.”

“Okay, so let me come down next week. I’ll make it right.”

“I’m not in charge of you.”

“You sound like Andrew. Listen, I don’t want to go where I’m not wanted. Just tell Andrew it’s okay with you, and we’ll talk next week okay?”

“Fine.”

“You’ll tell him?”

“I said I would.”

“Okay. Thank you. Kevin, I-”

[CALL ENDED]

  
  


iMESSAGE

[KEVIN, ANDREW, NEIL]

Kevin: andrew, why does aaron think i don’t want to see him?

**Andrew: why are you texting from the same room?**

Kevin: it’s a big room. some would call it a skating rink.

**Andrew: kevin**

_ Neil: guys stop _

Kevin: fine

**Andrew: fine**

_ Neil: he’s an asshole but he’s family, just tell him it’s okay _

Kevin: it’s fine with me

**Andrew: fine**

Kevin: fine

_ Neil: oh my god _

**Andrew: somebody come play skeeball with me**

Kevin: fine

_ Neil: fine _

iMESSAGE

[ANDREW, AARON]

**Andrew: it’s a yes, come next week**

**** Aaron: okay i’ll see you next week

**Andrew: fine**

Aaron: fine


	8. barbecue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is soft fluffy kandreil SMUT. 
> 
> (You have been warned.)
> 
> Prompt: barbecue 
> 
> (Though not a lot of barbecue actually happens.)
> 
> ((I typed the word, that counts right?))

Jean and Jeremy had flown out yesterday after they'd all celebrated their engagement, and Jeremy was already in talks with his team about buying out Jean’s contract. Matt and Dan had left the day before to go visit Matt’s mom, and Allison and Renee had piled into an Uber at the crack of dawn this morning to head for the airport and a week with Stephanie before going back to New York. 

Renee and Allison had taken the guest room last night, and Renee stayed up all hours talking with Andrew, while Kevin and Neil had entertained Allison. They’d all been nursing a bit of a lack-of-sleep hangover that morning, and once the girls had gone, Neil and his boyfriends had trudged upstairs in silent accord to crawl back into their oversized bed. 

Several hours later Neil woke up wedged between Kevin and Andrew, his face tucked into Kevin’s shoulder and Andrew spooning him, arm draped around Neil’s waist. It was quiet, the only sound was the soft whirr of the ceiling fan above them. He stretched a little, wrapping a leg around Kevin’s and leaning slightly back into Andrew. 

Neil felt the moment Andrew woke up: he stiffened slightly, then relaxed again, tightening his arm around Neil. Kevin shifted underneath Neil’s leg, and Neil tilted his head to find green eyes looking down at him all soft and sleepy and sexy. 

“You’re awake,” Neil mumbled, as Kevin trailed his fingers down Neil’s collarbone. It felt nice. 

“It’s a miracle,” Andrew deadpanned behind him, his tone in contrast to the sweetness in the kisses he had started pressing into Neil’s neck. 

Kevin just huffed a sleepy little laugh and turned in Neil’s arms to press a questioning kiss onto his lips. Neil realized that for the first time in weeks they had the house to themselves, and the answer to the question on Kevin’s lips was one hundred percent a _yes_. 

He pushed against Andrew and rolled onto his back so he could see both of their faces. Andrew slid a palm up Neil’s chest and took the opportunity to lean up and kiss Kevin. Neil’s breath caught as he watched Andrew’s tongue sweep into Kevin’s mouth, as he watched eyelashes flutter against cheeks, jawlines pressed together hungrily and both of their hands on Neil for leverage. 

They were so fucking beautiful. Neil thought that watching his boyfriends kiss inches from his face might be the hottest thing he’d ever seen. 

He reached a hand up to twine his fingers in Kevin’s hair, which made Kevin moan, which in turn made Andrew grin against Kevin’s lips and pull away to look at him. Neil took the opportunity and used his grip on Kevin to pull him down for a kiss, keeping his eyes open to meet Andrew’s gaze as he slid his tongue into Kevin’s mouth. Andrew kept eye contact with him as he started kissing and nipping at Kevin’s neck and the heat in those golden hazel eyes went straight to Neil’s dick. Suddenly it was his turn to moan into Kevin’s mouth, and he couldn’t stop himself from bucking up when Kevin reached down to palm him through his boxers. 

Kevin kissed down Neil’s jaw, his neck, his shoulder, slid a hand into his boxers, circling Neil’s hip bones with his thumb, his fingertips brushing against the head of Neil’s cock. Andrew had pulled back and was watching them, and Neil watched him watching, and reached a hand to twine fingers with him. 

It wasn’t actually very often that the three of them had sex together - sometimes it was timing and schedules, but more often it was that their needs aligned differently, and it was one of the things Neil cherished about their relationship. 

If Andrew needed to walk away right now, it would be okay, and if he and Kevin stayed here to fuck that would be okay too, and if Andrew wanted to stay and watch them and not participate, well it wouldn’t be the first time for that either. Neil had days too when touch was too much, when the weight of Kevin or Andrew on top of him was smothering. Kevin was a bit more even keel about sex than they were, but there were days when Kevin needed soft words and safe arms wrapped around him more than lips wrapped around his cock. They had navigated how to give each other what they needed, how to pay attention, when to step away and when to come closer. 

In this moment though, with Kevin’s hands on his body and Andrew’s eyes on the both of them, Andrew didn’t walk away. Instead, he leaned down to Neil, took his earlobe gently in his teeth, and asked softly, “What do you want Neil?” 

And just as Neil was going to answer Kevin finally wrapped his hand around Neil’s cock and all Neil managed for a moment was a soft “ _fuck._ ” Andrew chuckled, and Kevin stroked Neil once, twice, his hand dry and warm and Neil wanted more. 

“I want both of you,” Neil rasped out, turning his head to kiss Andrew, and he obliged, kissing him firmly and quickly before standing up. Andrew grabbed a bottle of lube from their dresser and tossed it on the bed, and then without hesitation pulled his t-shirt off and stepped out of his boxers. Kevin sat up to watch him this time too, and Neil reached over to slide his fingers under the edge of Kevin’s boxers and tugged a little without taking his eyes off of Andrew. 

Andrew flicked his gaze to Kevin, and something unspoken happened that Neil didn’t see, because in the next moment Kevin had quickly and efficiently removed his boxers and Neil’s, and then he was looking down at Neil and he said huskily, “How do you want us, love?” 

Oh. _Oh._

Andrew was crawling back onto the bed and Neil sat up to reach a hand out to him, pulling him forward into a kiss as he leaned back against Kevin. Neil hummed against Andrew’s lips and then he shifted, slid out from in between his boyfriends so that now Andrew was pressed along Kevin and Neil was stretched out beside them on the bed. 

Andrew cocked an eyebrow at him and Neil grinned. “I want to watch, for a bit.” 

Kevin smiled at that and pressed his hand to Andrew’s cheek and then they were kissing and kissing, Andrew pressing Kevin back into the bed and crawling fully on top of him, and _fuck_.

Kevin managed to uncap the lube with one hand, and Andrew raised up on his elbow and held his palm out for it. Neil realized what Andrew was going to do only a second before it happened, and when he reached down to wrap his lubed up hand around their cocks in one firm grip Neil couldn’t stop himself from leaning closer to them, gripping Kevin’s arm, nuzzling Andrew’s neck, feeling their huffed breaths and soft moans caress his face as Andrew jerked himself and Kevin off slowly, deliberately, teasingly, and Neil was so hard and he wanted to be touched _too_. 

“Now me,” Neil said, and Andrew stilled and Kevin groaned. 

“Yes, Neil, how do you want us now?” Andrew’s eyes were molten and there was the trust in his gaze and the confidence that was always there, but there was raw vulnerability too, and control that was being handed over, and it was breathtaking and delicate and for a moment Neil couldn’t breath. This was new, and it had crept up on him, and he knew Andrew was watching that realization play out in his eyes, and he was waiting. 

Neil looked at Kevin then, and Kevin was breathing heavily but keeping still underneath Andrew, watching them, and his look was soft and loving and Neil knew that he was seeing it too, this thing that Andrew had just dropped in their laps, and Neil also knew that Kevin would be just as careful not to break it as he would. Neil kissed Andrew with all of the love he had in his body, and he kissed Kevin, and then he took control. 

He used his words and his hands to tell them what he wanted, and they kissed and touched and adjusted until Kevin was behind Neil, the both of them on their sides, and Kevin lubed his cock and kissed Neil’s neck and positioned the head between the apex of Neil’s thighs. Andrew was pressed up against him too, his face inches from Neil’s face, one lubed hand wrapped around their cocks, and the other tucked up under Neil’s head and tangled in his hair. 

“Okay,” Neil breathed, and Andrew leaned in to kiss him just as Kevin thrust forward, and Neil broke off the kiss with a strangled, “ _ah_ ,” as Kevin’s dick slid against his perineum, pushed into his balls, and pressed his dick against Andrew’s where it was tucked tight in Andrew’s fist. 

The friction was delicious and overwhelming and coming from all sides and he was surrounded by skin and heat and Neil didn’t recognize the sound that came out of his own throat. 

Kevin thrust again, and Neil moaned, and Andrew kissed the moan right out of his mouth, and then Kevin thrust again, and again, and Neil scrabbled his free hand back to grip Kevin’s hip and he kissed Andrew desperately and Andrew kissed him back and the three of them were so close and not close enough all at the same time, and Neil whined - he _whined_ \- and Kevin wrapped his arm around them and pulled them impossibly closer, and kissed Neil’s neck, and thrust hard, and Neil was coming with a gasp and he threw his head back against Kevin’s shoulder. Andrew followed him, burying his face in Neil’s neck as he pushed Neil through his orgasm, jerking them together until it was almost too much, until Andrew tensed and groaned softly as he came and stilled, pressed sweatily against Neil. 

Neil couldn’t move, he couldn’t think, he felt Andrew lift up and heard him kiss Kevin greedily over his shoulder, and Neil was floating in the warmth. Then Kevin kissed his ear, asked softly, “Neil, can I?” and he moved a little against him, and Neil realized Kevin was still hard and restless between his lubed thighs. 

“God, yes Kevin, go,” and Neil laughed a little at his own choice of words but then Kevin was thrusting again, his arm wrapped tightly around Neil and Andrew was kissing Kevin and it was was almost too much again, but there was one more thrust, and Neil felt the heat and mess of Kevin’s orgasm spilling against his thighs. Kevin squeezed him tighter, kissed his neck, and collapsed onto the bed next to him, and Andrew did the same. 

Neil reached out on both sides and tangled his fingers with theirs, connecting them, and they chased their breath together. 

Eventually Andrew dragged them into a shower, which took longer than it should have because, well, kissing devolved into blow jobs and really they should know better to take showers together. Afterwards Neil yanked the rather gross sheets off their bed, and Kevin dropped a fresh set in the middle of the bed, and they remade it together, which would have been fine but Kevin pulled them both down into the fluffy comforter, and Neil and Andrew curled around him and they really, really didn’t mean to, but they fell asleep. 

It must have been a testament to how much sun and how little sleep they’d really had over the last weeks - or maybe getting off twice in an afternoon just does that to a man - but they were still fast asleep hours later when the front door of the house opened and Nicky called up the stairwell, “Hello? Are you guys here?”

Neil startled awake abruptly, Andrew jumped out of the bed and was reaching for knives that he no longer carried, and even Kevin sat up, blinking warily. 

“Fuck, what time is it?” Kevin muttered. 

Andrew relaxed minutely and rolled his eyes. “Clearly it is whatever time Nicky and Erik were supposed to get here from the airport.”

“Fuck!” Kevin was wide awake now. “The barbecue!”

Neil flopped back on the bed and groaned. Kevin had decided for some reason that he wanted to give Erik the “traditional American experience,” while he was here - regardless of the fact that Erik had been in the States plenty of times before, and Neil was pretty sure he’d been to a barbecue - probably with them. 

Andrew rolled his eyes again, shrugged into a shirt, and went downstairs to deal with his cousin.

“I was supposed to go to the grocery store this afternoon. We don’t have any of the things we need - UGH.” Kevin had his face in his hands now. 

Neil kissed the top of his head. “We’ll do it another night,” he murmured, kissing his temple. “They are here for two weeks.” He kissed his ear. “It’s fine.” Kevin had finally dropped his hands, so Neil kissed his nose. “And it was worth it, don’t you think?” he smirked a bit this time, and then ran his tongue along Kevin’s bottom lip. “Besides, Aaron will be here tomorrow, and wouldn’t it be better to do the barbecue when he’s here too?” 

Kevin huffed, but he smiled, and captured Neil’s lips in an actual kiss. “Yeah, okay, fine,” he said when he pulled back. “But what are we going to feed them for dinner then?”

Neil smiled. “Kevin, you have turned into a housewife.”

“Househusband, thank you very much,” he retorted, and started to smile, but it faded quickly, and Neil knew where his train of thought was going. 

“Stop,” Neil said. “Don’t let Aaron get in your head - it wasn’t even about you, what happened at Christmas.”

“I know,” Kevin said, frowning. 

“It will be a good thing to get it dealt with while he is here.”

“I know that too,” Kevin agreed.

“You good?” Neil asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kevin said. 

“What have I told you about stealing my lines?” Neil kissed him again, and ruffled his hair, pulling them both to standing. “Let’s go rescue Andrew from Nicky - I’m surprised Nicky hasn’t come up here to drag us out already.”

Kevin laughed, which had been Neil’s goal. “Fine! But, dinner?”

“Pizza?” Neil said.

“Ugh, far cry from barbecuing out back.”

Neil considered, then cocked his head. “Barbecue chicken pizza then?”

Kevin groaned. “I hate you.”

“What did I tell you about stealing lines?” Neil smirked.

“Okay FINE, let’s go order barbecue chicken pizza.”

Neil reached up and dragged his very tall boyfriend down for one more kiss, and then they headed downstairs to Andrew and Nicky and Erik.


	9. tan lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron comes to Columbia, and we're all here to find out what he said at Christmas...
> 
> Prompt: tan lines
> 
> (listen. I typed the words okay?)
> 
> ((i promise you will get real prompt representation in the next chapters))

It was very early, the sun just starting to climb in the sky when Aaron got out of the taxi. He stared at the house he had spent most of his teenage years in with Andrew and Nicky, and his skin was already feeling a little too tight as he stood there frozen in his shoes.

Sometimes Aaron had a hard time saying the things he really wanted to say. 

Unfortunately, that’s when he ends up saying things he doesn’t really mean.

He’s learned this in several years of therapy with Andrew under Bee’s careful watch. He’s learned this in navigating his relationship with Katelyn, who calls him on his bullshit. He knew that Christmas had happened because he’d panicked and said something hurtful because he himself was hurting. He lashed out. He knew this about himself. But knowing a thing about yourself and making better choices in the heat of the moment were two different animals.

Standing in front of the house in Columbia - a place he hadn’t seen since graduation - Aaron wished Katelyn had come with him because he felt small and alone in a way he never felt when she was by his side. All it took was a plane ride and the prospect of seeing his twin to put him right back here in his feelings - his twin who was disappointed in him. What else was new? 

Next to Andrew, Aaron felt secondary, like he was always gasping and grasping for attention and understanding and empathy. As much as Aaron knew that wasn’t true - he  _ wasn’t _ secondary - as much as Aaron had learned that Andrew loved him, Aaron also knew that he might never understand that love. 

Maybe that’s what he’d meant, when he’d said that to Kevin - that Neil understood Andrew in a way that they never would - which probably hadn’t been fair of him to say. Aaron couldn’t pretend to understand their relationship, the three of them, but he wanted to. He was resolved that his anger - that the bone deep hurt that he still spent hours picking apart in therapy - wouldn’t get in the way of his real words. Katelyn was his family, but this was his family too. 

So, it had hurt when he realized Nicky was coming and Andrew hadn’t told him, hadn’t invited him. He really hadn’t thought there was still an unresolved problem from Christmas, but he realized now that maybe he hadn’t wanted to deal with it. So he would try. Andrew had dragged him kicking and screaming out of hell, and goddamned it, Aaron would try. 

He made it as far as the porch steps, and sat down. No one would be up this early anyway, he had a minute to sort himself out. 

Well, no one but a shirtless Josten, who appeared in the distance at a jog, and slowed to walk as he headed up the driveway. 

“Hey,” Neil huffed at him, sitting down next to him on the stairs. “I didn’t know your flight got in this early.”   
  
“Hey. Yeah, I didn’t make a big deal of it. Didn’t want anyone having to get up to come get me at the crack of dawn.”   


“Fair. Andrew would have, though.”   


“Yeah, I know,” Aaron nodded. He did know.

“You run around shirtless now?” Aaron asked, purposefully changing the subject away from Andrew for a minute. He’d seen the scars, it wasn’t a new thing, but Neil hadn’t been in the habit of putting them on display when he didn’t have to. 

Neil laughed. “Not really, but it’s hot, and I don’t normally see anyone else on the road this time of morning. Andrew actually got me this rash guard thing that I’ve been wearing at the rock quarry,” Neil shrugged. “It covers almost everything up, but it makes for some interesting tan lines.” Neil held out his arms, and Aaron could see in the growing daylight that while Neil’s hands and wrists were tan from the summer sun, the rest of his torso was pale - arms, chest, all the way up to his neck.

“Huh,” Aaron said, not sure what else to say about Neil’s tan lines. 

“So,” Neil said, after a moment. “Did you forget your key?”

They all still had keys to this house - Andrew, Nicky, Aaron, Kevin, Neil. 

Aaron had not forgotten his key.

“No, I have it.”

“So,” Neil said again, tilting his head at him.

Aaron sighed. Goddamned Josten. He had always seen everything, noticed things. He paid attention, and he cared, and it was infuriating. It had been a particularly horrifying therapy session when he had realized how much Neil and Katelyn actually had in common, how Neil had the same propensity to call him on his shit that his wife did. Most of the time it was fine - fuck, Aaron would even say they were friends. Of course they were friends, Aaron knew that. If Neil wasn’t his friend he would have walked right past him and into the house, instead of sitting there, looking at him, inviting him to  _ talk _ . 

“So,” Aaron started, searching for the words. “You said on the phone that it wasn’t exactly that Andrew was mad.”

“Ah, hmm,” Neil considered. “You need to talk to him about it, Aaron.”

“Apparently he thinks I need to talk to Kevin about it. But the thing is...I was. Mad, that is. And I just tried to move on from it on my own to not make it a big thing - I didn’t know it was still an issue from Andrew’s end, too.”

“You were mad,” Neil frowned at him, and Aaron knew he wasn’t being clear, but he didn’t know how.

“Look, I just. Fuck. I was hurt okay? My feelings were hurt. It was a shock. I just couldn’t believe that you and Andrew got married and didn’t fucking tell me.”

There was a gasp, and Neil swiveled around, and goddamned if Aaron didn’t know what he was going to see, but he turned anyway, and Nicky was standing in the open doorway in pajamas, a cup of coffee in his hand and his mouth gaping open. Fuck. 

“I-,” Nicky started, then shook his head like a confused dog. “I- I’m still on Berlin time I think. I couldn’t sleep. Did Aaron just say you and Andrew got married?” Nicky was staring at Neil now, and his voice rose an octave on the last word, and he clutched at his coffee awkwardly. 

“Nicky,” Neil said carefully as he stood up. “It’s not like that.”

“So you did get married?”

“Yes, but-”

“When?” Nicky demanded.

Neil looked at Aaron helplessly, but Aaron didn’t really know how to help him, and if he was honest? If he was really, really honest? He was enjoying this. Just a little. Because now he wasn’t the only asshole reacting poorly to the news.

“I can’t have this conversation with you without Andrew and Kevin,” Neil finally said. 

“Fine,” Nicky said, and turned on his heel to stalk back into the house. 

“He’s not going to…?” Aaron said, a little alarmed now.

_ “Andrew!”  _ Aaron heard Nicky shout inside. 

“Ah, yeah, I think he is,” Neil said, sounding resigned. 

“Should we be worried? Andrew’s going to fucking stab him.”

Neil shot him an odd look at that, but didn’t say anything, following Nicky into the house. Aaron trailed after him. He really hadn’t meant to start this trip out with such a bang, but maybe this would be like ripping a band-aid off and they could all move the fuck on.

Thirty minutes later and they were assembled in the kitchen. Nicky remained intact - no stabbing had occurred, and Aaron was stunned to see that Andrew was no longer wearing his armbands. Instead his forearms were covered in sweeping florals and bees and birds and the tattoos were  _ colorful _ . Andrew was wearing his glasses, leaning against the counter with Kevin slumped over next to him nursing his coffee, yawning occasionally. Nicky was sitting at the kitchen table with Aaron and Neil (who had taken the world’s quickest shower), and Erik stood behind him, hands on his husband’s shoulders. Nicky’s face was stoic - an unusual look on him, and in that moment things felt very grim, and Aaron felt a bit more sorry than he had initially that Nicky had walked into his conversation with Neil. 

“Spill,” Nicky said. Andrew rolled his eyes and sighed, but he didn’t look angry. Aaron had expected him to be angry - he wasn’t sure about which part, but about something. But his face was a somewhat softer version of his usual impassive mask as he looked at Nicky. 

“I take it from the screeching about a wedding that I woke up to that Aaron told you,” Andrew said drily. 

Nicky shook his head. “Aaron didn’t tell me anything, I walked out onto the porch and heard him mention your  _ marriage _ to Neil. I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me -  _ invite _ me - I know things weren’t perfect, but I tried and I thought, I thought...and wait, what about Kevin?” Nicky jut his chin out, which Aaron knew from experience meant he was trying not to cry.

“Nicky,” Neil cut in. “It’s not like that.”

Nicky glared at him through watery eyes, and then looked up at Andrew. “Then how exactly is it? Tell me. I’m listening.”

Neil slid out of his chair suddenly and walked over to Kevin, leaned back against him, and pulled Kevin’s arms around him, like Neil was anchoring him. Andrew slid a little closer to them until his arm was pressed up against Kevin’s. Aaron watching them in shock, the blatant display of affection completely out of character for all three of them. He’d seen them touch here and there, of course, but this was. Intimate. The small intake of breath next to him told him Nicky was having the same reaction.

Finally Andrew spoke, and he was addressing Nicky, but he flicked a look at Aaron too. “I am going to go through this one time, and I am not going to answer any questions about it. Then I want it dropped. That is the only way we are going to have this conversation.”   


“But-” Nicky tried to interrupt, but Andrew held his hand up and he stopped. 

“Nicky. I am willing to do this because you are family, and I can see that you are upset, and you think something happened that didn’t. I am willing to clarify that for you, but only under these terms. Okay?”

It looked like it took everything in him to do it, but Nicky shut his mouth, leaned back into Erik, and nodded. “Okay.”

“Neil and I were legally married the year I graduated. We did it for recruiting purposes, it was strategic, so that the three of us could leverage it and make sure we would be able to play for the same pro team. We discussed Neil and Kevin marrying instead - or Kevin and me - but for various reasons that don’t fucking matter right now, the three of us decided this was the most effective way. It was only the three of us at the courthouse, and we have told no one besides those who need to know on our team in order to negotiate our contracts. No one else, until last Christmas, when Aaron asked me to be next of kin in the will in case something happens to him and Katelyn, so that we could take the twins. I thought that, purely from a legal standpoint, Aaron would need to know that  _ technically _ Neil and I are married, according to the law,” Andrew paused for a moment, flicked his gaze over to Kevin, and Aaron realized that Kevin had gone rigid, and was looking away from all of them, and Aaron was starting to think he might understand just how badly he had fucked up at Christmas. 

If he’d had any doubts, the look Andrew now turned on him as he continued his explanation sure cleared it up for him. “I want to be very, very clear. Neil is not my husband, we do not consider ourselves married, there was no wedding. There was a legal contract so that we - the three of us - could protect our relationship with each other. This legal contract does not mean anything to any of us beyond the fact that it allows us to continue to negotiate our contracts with the Wolverines and ensure that we don’t get traded.” 

Andrew reached over and tugged at Kevin’s hand, loosening it from the fist it was clenched in and tugged both Kevin and Neil even closer to his side. “Kevin and Neil are my partners, absolutely nothing has changed, and if it were legal I would marry both of them right now.” Kevin made a strange noise, and turned his face farther away from them, and Neil was staring at the floor, and Aaron suddenly felt fucking awful.

“Why didn’t you tell me that at Christmas?” Aaron managed to choke out. He knew Andrew had said no questions but he couldn’t help it. 

Andrew shrugged. “You didn’t give me a chance to before you fucked it up.”

“Andrew, not sure that’s helpful,” Neil said quietly, and Andrew just shrugged again. 

“Wait, how did Aaron fuck it up?” Nicky asked quietly. He had stilled during Andrew’s speech, and he looked calmer, but confused, and Aaron idly realized that his cousin had really grown up and mellowed out and when did that happen? 

Kevin sighed a heavy sigh, and it startled Aaron and he realized his brother’s other boyfriend hadn’t said a word since he’d been unceremoniously dragged out of bed by an irate Nicky. He turned and propped his chin on Neil’s head, looking at Nicky. “Basically, Aaron turned to me after Andrew told him about the marriage and said that at least he and I were in the same boat, and that it would always be Neil and Andrew against the world with no room for anyone else.” 

Kevin cut his gaze to Aaron. “Sound about right Aaron?” Aaron winced. Nicky squeaked. Andrew crossed his arms. Neil shifted, pulling Kevin tighter around him. 

Aaron straightened, and he took a page from Nicky and pushed his chin out. He considered his words carefully. He would not fuck this up. 

“I fucked up,” is what came out of his mouth. One of Andrew’s eyebrows shot up at that, which under any other circumstance would be comical. 

“I fucked up,” he said again. “Kevin, I  _ am _ sorry. That wasn’t about you. I know that doesn’t make it okay, but I want you to know that I don’t see your relationship like that. I lashed out at Christmas, and I am-” Aaron blew out a breath, because this was really fucking hard and a whole half of his body wanted to rebel, but he pushed through. “My feelings were hurt because I felt left out. Me. And I took it out on you, and I am trying to do better.” 

As brave as he was trying to be, Aaron had started staring at the wall across from him, avoiding eye contact, and when he was met with silence he looked up to find everyone staring at him in varying degrees of shock - everyone except for Andrew, who was now giving him the same somewhat softer version of his impassive look that he’d given Nicky earlier and something in Aaron’s heart unclenched. 

He stood up. Looked at his twin. “Can we talk?” he said. Andrew nodded, and followed him outside, and yeah. 

It was a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just realized i didn't give erik ANY words in this chapter. oops.
> 
> tomorrow i will give the big german man some words. and a popsicle. 
> 
> <3


	10. popsicle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I gave Erik a popsicle, as promised. 
> 
> This one's Nicky and Erik.
> 
> Prompt: popsicle

Nicky was a big fan of Andrew’s outdoor oasis. The kiddie pool was large enough that he could lay flat and just barely float, and he was taking full advantage - stretched out in his tiny European-style swim trunks. The inflated palm tree was happily spouting water on him, the bubble machine was trucking away, and the three oversized fans whirred from the side of the porch, sending a blessed breeze his way. He let his arms drift wide and watched the bubbles float into the sky.

Things were good, and Nicky couldn't quite wipe the smile off his face. 

Yesterday had definitely been a scene, and maybe he shouldn’t have stormed into Andrew’s bedroom, but the outcome had been something to see. Andrew and Aaron had talked out back for quite a while after the revelation in the kitchen - which was in and of itself a big deal - and afterwards Aaron and Kevin had gone on a long walk together. They’d returned with their shoulders set at more relaxed angles, a trace of their old friendship alive in their faces.

The rest of the day had been spent at the rock quarry, where Nicky had watched his family and desperately tried to keep his heart from floating out of his chest. Andrew was different this summer - lighter, almost playful with Kevin and Neil. Kevin’s sharp edges had softened, and Neil had settled into a calm steadiness. The three of them together were a melody that Nicky didn’t quite understand - and for the first time he felt like he was being allowed to hear bits and pieces of it. 

And Aaron. Oh, his Aaron. Nicky hadn’t realized what he was stepping into when he’d overheard Aaron’s conversation with Neil, but he couldn’t feel prouder than the moment when he’d watched his cousin apologize and admit to his own hurt feelings head-on with Andrew. 

Nicky knew that he had changed too, that finally returning to Germany and Erik’s strong, steady arms had done him good. At some point in that first year after graduation, after settling back into life in Berlin, he’d realized he’d been a bit of a pendulum - swinging from the homophobic right-wing suppression of his childhood to this extreme chaotic energy that exploded everywhere he went. It was like his personality over-corrected itself, and before he had a chance to even out, suddenly he was ripping himself from the small foothold of safety he had found in Germany to move back to South Carolina and take over guardianship of his small, angry cousins. 

He had been terrified, he had been determined, and he hadn’t spared any thought to who he was or what he wanted for the next five years.

So yeah, when he’d finally graduated, sent Andrew off to his pro exy career, and Aaron off to med school in Chicago, when he’d finally gotten back to where he really wanted to be, it had taken some time to sort out _who_ he really wanted to be. Who he really was. It felt nice, to fit comfortably in your own skin. It was nice to start seeing your family do somewhat of the same. 

It was better than nice. 

“Stop brooding,” Erik said from somewhere behind him, just as his shadow blocked the sun from Nicky’s face. Nicky grinned up at him, and then pushed up to sitting in the little pool. The boys had all gone to get supplies for tonight’s barbecue, leaving Nicky and Erik to their own devices for a bit. 

“I’m not brooding, just thinking. Your vocabulary is failing you again,” Nicky teased. 

“Hah! My English is better than yours and you know it.”

Erik settled into the pool next to him, creating a small splash, and then held up two popsicles wrapped in clear cellophane. “Red or purple? I found them hiding in the back of the freezer.”

“Oh god,” Nicky groaned, but reached out and took the purple one. “I think these might still be from before we graduated - do you think they go bad? We used to keep them stocked for summers but then one day Andrew banned them.”

Erik frowned, unwrapping the red one. “Banned them? Why would he do that?”

Nicky snorted. “Oh, because Neil - well, Neil liked them a lot. And Andrew liked watching Neil like them a lot. And then Kevin noticed Andrew noticing Neil like them a lot, so Kevin got in on it too. It was a whole thing, and when Andrew finally realized they were doing it on purpose he uh, threw out the popsicles and banned them from the house.”

“What do you mean ‘noticed’?” Erik asked, as he tilted his head and licked a stripe up the side of his popsicle, his tongue curling around the top of it briefly.

Nicky’s brain stuttered to a stop. “Um,” he said helpfully, staring at his husband’s lips, which were now wrapped around his cherry-red popsicle, his cheeks hollowed slightly as he pulled it slowly out of his mouth. 

“Yes?” Erik prodded, his face attentive, his lips already stained with popsicle juice. Nicky watched him lick at the bottom of his popsicle to catch the drips, and then Erik parted those cherry-stained lips and slowly deep throated the popsicle, watching Nicky the whole time, before pulling off with a wet pop.

“Oh,” Nicky said, sitting frozen with his still-wrapped popsicle in hand. “You're doing that on purpose aren’t you?”

Erik licked a long, slow stripe up the side again, and smirked at him. “I’m distracting you from your brooding. Is it working?”

“Not brooding, and _yes_ ,” Nicky breathed as he crawled forward, splashed down on top of Erik, kissing him for all he was worth, and he tasted like sugary cherries and warmth and home. Erik chuckled against his mouth, sweeping his tongue against Nicky’s and _oh_ , Nicky was very on board with being distracted like this.

“How long ago did they leave?” Nicky mumbled against Erik’s lips.

“Does it matter?” Erik huffed, amused.

“Not one bit,” Nicky laughed, and with that he dragged his hunky German husband into the house, locked their bedroom door, and proceeded to show him exactly how amenable he was to distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh Andrew definitely lifted the ban on popsicles, and Neil and Kevin have plowed through about five boxes of them this summer, driving their boyfriend crazy.


	11. road trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh, a little smut and a really pretty car.
> 
> (I don't know what happened) 
> 
> ((From here on out it's all kandreil y'all))
> 
> Prompt: road trip

Neil groaned as he folded in half, his fingertips trailing the floor, the stretch pulling against his tight hamstrings. It felt really fucking good. Just like his extra long run that morning had felt really fucking good. Just like the last few days on the Foxhole Court had felt really fucking good. It had been a pretty great summer all told, and he had loved the time they’d had with their friends and with family, but Neil had missed having a court under his feet and a racket in his hand and Kevin and Andrew to himself. 

Neil dropped to the floor and rolled onto his back, crossed an ankle onto his thigh and pulled his knee into his chest, stretching his hip flexor. Another groan snuck out of his mouth just as Kevin pushed the bedroom door open.

“Hey Neil-” Kevin said, stopping suddenly in the doorway and staring down at Neil. “You’re naked,” he said accusingly.

Neil smiled up at him and switched legs. “It was too hot after my shower to put clothes on.”

“You are stretching naked,” Kevin said in the same tone. 

“Problem?” Neil asked innocently, letting go of the stretch and pushing his legs out along the floor. He sat up and then folded over, reaching for his toes, cocking his head to the side to keep an eye on Kevin. 

Kevin propped up on the doorframe, and crossed his arms. “Nope,” he said, popping the sound of the word. “I’ll just wait until you’re done.”

Neil shrugged, and then moved through a few yoga poses just to be an asshole - but his plan started to backfire when he couldn’t stop thinking about Kevin’s eyes on him, and he felt his cock twitch at the thought, and he let out a little laugh and stood up and grinned at his boyfriend. 

Kevin raised an eyebrow and tilted his head in question at Neil’s dick, which was half hard against his leg. 

“Yes,” Neil said, and Kevin reached him in three steps, spun Neil around, and hauled his back up against his chest. The feel of his naked skin against Kevin’s clothes was lewd and sensual and Kevin had one hand splayed across his belly and the other gripped in his hair and it was fucking  _ hot _ . 

Neil gasped when Kevin tugged his head around for a bruising kiss before backing up and dragging Neil to the bed, falling back against the padded headboard with Neil in his lap. 

That was fucking hot too. 

He was splayed out naked across Kevin’s lap, one of Kevin’s arms anchored around his chest holding Neil in place and he brought his other hand up to Neil’s mouth. “Spit,” he commanded lowly. Neil did, and then Kevin reached down and wrapped those long fingers around his cock, pulling up in one long stroke, twisting his palm over the head, and Neil pressed against him and moaned. 

Neil reached his arms up, tangled his fingers in Kevin’s hair and pulled him down into a messy kiss over his shoulder, and Kevin’s strokes were firm and steady and Neil came in minutes, his orgasm fast and messy and Neil felt somewhat debauched draped over Kevin with cum on his belly and his breath coming fast and Kevin kissing his neck, and  _ of course _ that was when Andrew walked into the room.

Andrew paused in the doorway, taking in the scene, and Neil knew he was blushing, but he didn’t move, letting Andrew look his fill. He could feel Kevin’s dick pressed up against his ass and he couldn’t help from wiggling a little against him. 

“I am tempted to take a picture of this,” Andrew said, and his voice was husky, and Neil knew exactly what that tone meant. Neil rolled off of Kevin as Andrew crossed the room. 

Andrew kissed both of them deeply, and then he sank to his knees in front of Kevin, popping the button on his shorts with two fingers. Laid out beside them, Neil propped his head into the crook of his elbow, and tucked Kevin’s hand in his, and Andrew reached up to wrap his own hand around the both of theirs as he took Kevin into his mouth and,  _ yeah. _

The thing was, when there were three of you, sometimes you got to just watch - and that was really fucking hot too. 

Later - but not too much later, because quickies were good too - Andrew sat up and pointed at Kevin and said “This is  _ not _ what I sent you up here for.”

Kevin lolled his head towards Neil. “Neil, Andrew wants us to come outside, and he promises he hasn’t bought another kiddie pool.”

Neil snorted, and got cleaned up and dressed. 

They trailed after Andrew out the front door and Neil’s nose got smashed when Kevin stopped abruptly in front of him. “The fuck, Kev,” he muttered, pressing at his nose and coming out from behind his (very tall) boyfriend to see Andrew standing next to a bright red BMW convertible, twirling a set of keys on his finger.

“Road trip?” Andrew asked.

“Did you-” Kevin started. 

“-buy that?” Neil finished for him when Kevin sputtered out, but he started grinning, because he was pretty sure that Andrew had bought it.

Andrew shrugged, and Neil and Kevin exchanged looks. Andrew had a whole catalog of shrugs - his boyfriends were fluent in them - and this one meant  _ I did a thing and I’m a little sensitive about it. _ So they shuffled down the steps and over to the shiny new car, running their fingertips over the sparkling finish, giving Andrew a minute to twirl his keys and find his words.

“It’s been good here, this summer,” Andrew finally said. “I want to spend some money on the house, fix it up a bit, spend more summers here. Wymack is here - and Bee and Abby too. Kevin wants to spend time with his dad more than we have in the past three years. It’s a good place for Aaron and Katelyn to come visit with the twins. I want to take them to the rock quarry one day. Matt will be here with Dan as long as she is coaching at Palmetto, and that’s important to Neil. Renee says she and Allison will most likely make it here once a summer. It’s home base. I figured we needed a car for home base.”

“Andrew. It’s  _ red,”  _ Neil said. 

“Well, they didn’t have one in orange,” he huffed.

“It’s a  _ convertible _ ,” Kevin said. 

“Is that all you two have to say? I thought if we were going to have a summer car it might as well be  _ fun _ .”

“Did they not have black?” Neil asked.

“I did not want black,” Andrew said with that little shrug again. “I can get rid of it if you don’t like it - I put all three of our names on the title.”

“No, red is good. Very good,” Kevin said, still running his fingers along the hood of the car. He looked up intently at Andrew. “And yes, it’s a yes for me. I’d love to see dad regularly. Thank you.”

“Me too Andrew. It’s a yes, I love the idea,” Neil said nodding, and realizing as he said it that he felt the same, that this place was important - a home base. This is where he had found himself, found a family, found Kevin and Andrew. 

Andrew smiled. It was small, and genuine, and the way it softened his face was something that only Neil and Kevin got to see. “Good,” he said softly. “Now go get your stuff, we’ll just be gone for the day.”

Kevin suddenly grinned. “Shotgun!” he shouted as he bounded up the stairs. 

Neil laughed. “Fine, your legs are longer anyway!” he called after him, and followed him into the house to grab his wallet and sunglasses.

Minutes later they were speeding down the highway, the top down and Bowie blasting out the speakers. 

Andrew had those oversized rainbow shades on his face and his ash blond hair whipped in the wind as he taunted the speed limit. Kevin’s seat was pushed back as far as it could go, his arm stretched out to rest casually on Andrew’s headrest and contentment was written all over his face. 

Neil kicked off his shoes and flopped sideways in the back seat, his feet propped up on the side of the car, his Wayfarers snug on his face as he traced the puffy clouds in the sky with one lazy hand in the air. They had nowhere to go and nowhere to be and he was tucked into a bright red convertible with the two most important people in his life and Neil was smiling and he couldn’t  _ stop _ smiling and that felt really fucking good too. 


	12. bonfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andrew talks to Bee.
> 
> Chapter prompt: bonfire

Summer was almost over. The evenings were actually starting to cool off some, and soon they would have to pack up the Columbia house and head back north for pre-season. The newest crop of Foxes came back to campus early for training, and Wymack had cajoled Kevin and Neil and Andrew to spend the day on the Foxhole Court with them. Andrew had to admit it had been fun - running around the court with a bunch of talented kids who were gaping in awe at him and his boyfriends. 

Not that he let any of them score on him (boyfriends included). 

Afterwards was the annual pre-season party at Abby’s house, more food than one team could possibly eat along with a giant bonfire. The alcohol flowed less freely amongst the undergrads than it did in their day, but the grown-ups had passed around a bottle of Johnnie Walker that Wymack had procured for the evening. 

As the night began to wind down, most everyone had headed back to the dorms or migrated inside, although a few remaining baby Foxes lingered - cornering Kevin and Neil and attacking with questions about the pros and Court and their infamous time at Palmetto. Andrew left his boyfriends to the wolves, and snuck outside to sit in one of the Adirondack chairs next to the dwindling bonfire - his fingers itching idly for the cigarettes he no longer smoked. 

Andrew heard the porch door open and wasn’t surprised when Bee settled into the chair next to him, dropping supplies for s’mores on the table between them. 

“It’s like you know me,” Andrew said, and Bee smiled serenely back at him. He reached for a couple of marshmallows and skewered them on one of the long sticks abandoned by the fire. Andrew played the long game in marshmallow toasting, letting the fluffy pillows of goodness slowly brown as he rotated the stick, turning the insides to complete goo before he mushed them on top of a piece of chocolate and pressed the whole thing between slices of graham cracker. 

They sat in silence for a while, him and Bee, munching on their messy s’mores and listening to the fire crackle. Bee hadn’t been his therapist for quite some time - she had recommended a few resources when he’d signed with the Wolverines, and after checking out a couple of options Andrew had found a good match with a kind, no-nonsense woman named Anna. But sitting next to Bee would never not be comfortable for him - she was, ultimately, the very first person who had really _ known _ him. 

Besides, with Kevin as one of his partners, it was a guarantee that Bee would be in his life. When Kevin had finally come out to his dad about his relationship with  _ both _ Andrew and Neil, Wymack in turn had shared that he’d been in a relationship with both Betsy and Abby for years. It wasn’t until after Andrew had graduated - and his counselor relationship with Bee was terminated - that he learned that she was aro-ace and considered herself the queer-platonic third in that threesome. Bee was also why Wymack and Abby didn’t live together - they didn’t want her to feel left out, and Bee didn’t want to live with anyone. 

Andrew understood worrying about leaving people out.

“You’ve had a good summer this year,” Bee mused, breaking the silence. 

“Yes,” Andrew agreed, nodding at the fire. “Things are good. I am happy. I like it.”

It was a ridiculous statement, particularly coming from him. Bee laughed, a startled chuckle, and Andrew grinned a little. 

“Something seems to be on your mind though,” Bee said after they made another round of s’mores.

Ah, Bee. Andrew sighed. “I do have something I need to fix,” he said.

Bee cocked her head. “I’ve got a friendly ear if you want to hash it out - I  _ can _ turn my counselor brain off you know.”

Andrew huffed softly. “Can you though?” Bee just smiled, and Andrew skewered a few more marshmallows and held them near the fire, thinking it through. Aaron and Nicky knew about it now - and Erik too. It might be helpful to get Bee’s perspective - she had been navigating a poly relationship for much longer than he had. 

“Okay,” Andrew agreed after eating his toasted marshmallows right off the stick. “Back when Kevin and I graduated, we went down to the courthouse and Neil and I got legally married.”

Andrew saw Bee’s eyes widen a bit at that, but she just nodded, and he thought idly that Bee would never be able to fully turn off her counselor’s brain as she called it, but fuck it - he plowed on. “It wasn’t supposed to mean anything. It was just to give us leverage when Neil graduated to get him recruited to the Wolverines with us. It could have just as easily been Neil and Kevin who got married - and we talked about that. But Kevin is well - he is Kevin Day. No one is going to trade him if they can help it. It was more likely that either Neil or I would be traded down the line, and it is much harder to trade two players than one.” Andrew shrugged. 

“Well, it certainly worked,” Bee said after a moment. 

“Yes,” Andrew agreed. “Until Christmas this year, it has only come up twice: once when Neil got recruited, and once when Houston tried to poach me from the Wolverines. It was a business contract, nothing else. We talked about it, the three of us, before we did it - we don’t consider it a real marriage. It was strategy, that is all.”

“Hmm, because you can’t have a real marriage if it doesn’t include all three of you,” Bee said thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Andrew said. 

“So, what happened at Christmas?” Bee asked. 

“Aaron happened,” Andrew said. “He wants me - and by extension Neil and Kevin - to be next of kin for his girls. I thought he would need to know that technically Neil and I are married, for the paperwork. Aaron didn’t take the news well.”

“Huh. I’m not surprised to hear that I guess, but you two seemed to be getting along pretty well when he came to visit a few weeks ago.”

Andrew snorted. “Yes, because Nicky basically dragged us all into a family meeting the moment Aaron arrived and we talked it out,” he said, glossing over the details. “But, the problem is that Kevin was even hurt by what Aaron said in the first place.” 

Bee frowned. “What exactly did Aaron say?”

“That Kevin would always be left out just like Aaron - that it was me and Neil against the world with no space for anyone else,” Andrew said. 

“Oh,” Bee said softly. 

“Yeah,” Andrew said, poking the embers of the fire with his marshmallow stick.

“Were you surprised that Kevin was hurt?”

Andrew shrugged, thinking about it. Had he been surprised? In the moment he’d just been angry, had felt vulnerable and exposed, his need to protect kicking into overdrive. Later, when he had realized the extent of how much Kevin was hurt by Aaron’s comment he had gotten angry all over again - this time at himself - because he had thought they were solid, the three of them. It wasn’t Neil and Andrew against the world, that was so,  _ so _ wrong. It was the  _ three of them _ against the world, and Andrew had faith in their relationship in a way that he had never had faith in anything else. They had walked through fire together and had come out the other side melded, inseparable. They weren’t supposed to care what anyone else thought, and a legal piece of paper shouldn’t have any clout in their relationship. Yet clearly Kevin  _ did _ care about that piece of paper at least on some level - and Aaron had unwittingly opened up a wound with his thoughtlessness that Andrew hadn’t realized was there. 

“No. I am not surprised about it now. But I was then,” Andrew admitted. 

Bee hummed. “Andrew, you know that you are not responsible for Kevin’s feelings.”   


Andrew rolled his eyes at her. “Bee,” he said warningly. 

Bee held a palm up and grinned. “Okay fine,  _ fine _ . I would say the same thing to a friend though. But I’ll withdraw it. So what are you thinking then?”

“Honestly I am frustrated. I would marry both of them if I could - a real marriage. I am not sure how to balance things out. I have considered that maybe Neil and I should dissolve the marriage contract, but that may cause more problems than it solves.”

“Have you talked to Kevin about all of this? And Neil?” Bee asked. 

“Of course,” Andrew scoffed. “Kevin says it is fine. He sounds like Neil circa freshman year.”

“Maybe the three of you could do a session or two with Anna together? Hash it out in a safe space?” Bee suggested.

Andrew raised an eyebrow at her. “You do remember that one of my boyfriends is Neil Josten, yes? The same Neil Josten that, as he told me, ran exy stats at you for most of his mandatory sessions at Palmetto?”

Bee laughed out loud at that. “Okay, fair enough.”

They dropped into quiet again, and as it seemed Bee was about to say something else, the back door opened and Wymack popped his head out. “Andrew!” he shouted. “You need to come get Neil - he’s terrifying my freshmen. One of them made the mistake of asking Kevin what it was like playing with the great Riko Moriyama, for fuck's sake.”

“Not my job,” Andrew yelled back, but he got up anyway to head back to the house. He refused to hurry - he was reasonably sure Neil wouldn’t kill a freshman Fox, only maim them temporarily. Probably.

“Andrew, I just texted you a link,” Bee said from behind him, just as Andrew felt his phone buzz in his pocket. “It might be helpful in fixing your problem.”

He paused, too curious to wait, and pulled out his phone. He clicked on the link as Bee breezed past him and into the house. Andrew froze once the webpage loaded, rooted to the spot, Neil’s impending violence forgotten, as he scrolled through the article she had sent him. 

_ Huh.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm SORRY! well, i'm mostly sorry...
> 
> the final two chapters will be up today, tomorrow at the latest.


	13. water fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin and Neil and Andrew. 
> 
> Fluff and love and emotions here fam. 
> 
> Enough said. 
> 
> Prompt: water fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [foxsoulcourt](https://foxsoulcourt.tumblr.com/) this chapter is for you. 
> 
> I decided to let you keep your bone...

Kevin was lounging in the kiddie pool with Andrew under the late afternoon sun when Neil came out to join them in bright turquoise swim trunks covered in orange foxes wearing top hats - a cheeky gift from Matt that Neil had declared he adored. He sported an oversized pair of matching turquoise Wayfarers on his face that contrasted nicely with his auburn hair. It was just the three of them, so Neil had forgone the rash guard, and as he sauntered towards them confidently, Kevin was struck all over again by his boyfriend’s striking beauty.

“Last day of your hot girl summer, huh Drew?” Neil grinned at Andrew as he dropped into the pool across from them. 

Kevin snickered, which earned him a glare and a splash from Andrew. “Hey why’d I get splashed, Neil’s the one who said it?” he protested.

Neil took that as his cue to splash Kevin too. “Don’t throw me under the bus,” he laughed, sticking his tongue out.

Andrew grinned. “You are both ridiculous,” he said, and Kevin barely had time to register the gleam in his eyes before Andrew was splashing the both of them and suddenly they descended into a full-fledged water fight. 

In less than five minutes half the water had already been splashed out of the pool, the inflated palm tree spurting sadly as its water source was depleted. Neil ran for the water hose and turned it on them, but Andrew distracted him while Kevin launched, grabbing Neil around the waist and tossing him over his shoulder. Kevin thought about just dropping him into the pool, but with the water depleted he was worried he’d get hurt. Instead, he hoisted him up and around, letting him slide down the front of his body - which may have been a miscalculation in battle tactics, as Neil just wrapped his legs around Kevin’s waist and kissed him. 

Kevin was immediately distracted, and he got lost in his boyfriend’s mouth, all of which would have been well and good except the next thing he knew he was being doused in water. He was so startled he almost dropped Neil, who was laughing again, and who luckily had the strength of the gods in those thighs as they were all that had kept him from falling on his ass. 

“Seriously Andrew?” Kevin sputtered at his boyfriend, who was currently reloading his bucket in the kiddie pool, while Neil slid down to his feet, trying and failing to get his laughter under control. 

Andrew paused and pointed at his own chest in mock indignation. “I was under the impression that this is _my_ hot girl summer, and yet, for some reason, I am the only one not being kissed,” he huffed. 

Kevin traded glances and grins with Neil, and then they tackled their boyfriend into the kiddie pool, kissing every bit of him they could reach, effectively ending the water fight and turning it into something much, _much_ more satisfying.

Eventually they let go of each other, stopping short of actually fucking in the kiddie pool, with promises of _“later”_ thrown around as they untangled. Kevin got to work fully draining the pool and deflating it, laying it out to dry in the sun so it could be folded up and stored in the garage for next year. Andrew made quick work of the badminton net, and Neil took down the fans and the bubble machine. It didn’t take long to dismantle the backyard oasis, and Kevin sat down on the porch steps to wait for the pool to dry out. Though he was eager to get back to work in Boston, he felt a small pang of regret - which faded into a small smile as he remembered the plan was to do this every summer. 

They had teased Andrew - who was clearly settling into something in himself this summer - but really all three of them were becoming something _more_ , both individually and together. Five years ago if he and Neil had tackled Andrew like that, they would have ended up being stabbed instead of kissed back with enthusiasm. Five years ago none of them could have laughed and smiled and relaxed in the sun as they had this summer. Five years ago, neither he nor Andrew would have been able to forgive Aaron - much less talk things out and spend a week together. 

Of course, five years ago what Aaron said wouldn’t have felt so hurtful to him - which was ironic, wasn’t it? He’d meant what he’d said at the beginning of the summer to Jean: Kevin was secure in his relationship - if anything he felt more secure than ever. Yet that somehow made it worse when he finally acknowledged that he did have some kind of feelings about Neil and Andrew being technically married. They were confusing, complicated feelings - in fact they were _unfair_ feelings - and he didn’t want to dump them on his boyfriends. He couldn’t quite process how much his heart had stuttered in his chest when Andrew had announced that he would marry the both of them if he could. He tried to ignore it - he did ignore it - but his heart kept tapping on his ribcage saying _I want that._

“Earth to Kevin,” Neil said from right next to him, startling him out of his thoughts. Kevin smiled wanly.

“You okay?” Neil asked, frowning back at him. 

“I am, love,” Kevin lied, leaning in for a kiss. Neil obliged him, but it didn’t quite wipe the frown off his face, and when Kevin pulled back Neil reached out to thumb at the chess piece tattooed on his cheek, cocking his head and searching Kevin’s face. “I’m fine,” Kevin said, cheekily this time, and Neil huffed. 

“Okay well, Andrew went inside while you were zoning out and is in the shower. If you wanna shower with me after, he said he’d go pick up takeout from the good Mediterranean deli and we can eat dinner on the porch.” 

“Sounds perfect,” Kevin smiled, and it was genuine. He kissed Neil again, and this time Neil smiled back, and they headed inside to shower. 

Dinner on the porch turned into an actual picnic. The weather was perfect, the lightning bugs just starting to come out as the sun set in glorious shades of orange and pink and gold. Freshly showered and stomachs grumbling in anticipation of shawarma and hummus and falafel and baklava, they lounged on pillows and blankets they’d pilfered from the living room, opening containers and passing plates to each other. 

When they’d finished dinner, Andrew hopped up to take the food inside. Kevin raised an eyebrow when Andrew came back with a bottle of white wine and three glasses balanced in one hand, his iPad in the other - he had to use his hip to push the porch door open, but he finagled it and was out before Kevin or Neil could realize and help him. The wine was open and already sweating in the heat when Andrew set it down on their blanket and sat cross-legged facing Kevin and Neil. 

“Wine?” Neil asked, sounding confused. Kevin nodded agreement to his confusion - none of them drank much anymore, but when they did it wasn’t usually wine. 

“Something different,” Andrew said, and he shrugged. Neil and Kevin sat up a little straighter at that - it was the same shrug Andrew gave when he bought the convertible - the _I did a thing and I’m a little sensitive about it_ shrug. 

Andrew poured the wine, and it was cold and crisp and perfect, and Kevin sipped it and waited while Andrew tapped at the iPad. The sun had gone down a bit further, turning the sky shades of amethyst and lavender, and the lightning bugs were winking in earnest now. Kevin stole a glance at Neil, but Neil was looking intently at Andrew - the look on his face showing that he didn’t know what was going on either, but he was trying to figure it out.

When Andrew finally handed the iPad over to Kevin, Neil scooted closer - his wine sloshing just a bit as he rested his head on Kevin’s shoulder lightly and looked at the screen. It took Kevin a minute to recognize what he was looking at - only because it was so unexpected. It was a house listing - 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, historic but updated, $1.4 million, in Somerville, MA. Kevin looked up. “Um?” he said eloquently. 

“Swipe if you don’t like that one,” Andrew said. 

Kevin exchanged a confused look with Neil and swiped. It was another house, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, historic with lots of character evident in the pictures, $1.6 million - also in Somerville, MA. 

Andrew peeked over at the one they were looking at now. “That one’s my favorite,” he said before taking a sip of his wine. 

“Are you saying you want to move?” Neil asked.

“There’s more,” Andrew said, ignoring Neil’s question and nodding at the iPad encouragingly. 

Kevin dutifully swiped through three more houses, all in Somerville. “I like your favorite the best too,” Kevin said carefully, still not sure what the point was. They had their brownstone - which they’d only bought two years ago - and Somerville was basically an adjacent town next to Boston. They’d been there a few times - it was about a twenty minute drive to the Wolverine stadium, but they’d never even talked about moving before.

Kevin tried to hand the tablet back to Andrew, but Andrew pushed it back towards him, leaning over it as he did to close out the real estate app and open up the minimized web browser. It was a NY Times article. Kevin frowned, scanned the screen, and he could tell Neil was doing the same next to him. Andrew was gazing at them attentively, watching them read, and it was making it hard for Kevin to focus. He read the title three times before it registered:

**A Massachusetts City Decides to Recognize Polyamorous Relationships**

“Holy fuck,’ Neil breathed next to him, leaning closer. Kevin blinked. He blinked again. He started reading. “Holy fuck,” Neil said again after a moment. For some reason the words weren’t working for Kevin, they were moving around the page, they wouldn’t hold still for his eyes to focus on. He blinked again, and a raindrop fell on the screen. And then another. He looked up at the sky confused - it had been so clear a moment ago. He didn’t realize he was crying until he felt Andrew’s hand on his cheek, brushing at his tears, rubbing his knuckles along his jaw. Kevin opened his mouth to say something, but his chest cracked open before he could speak, and a sob escaped, and then another, and he doubled forward, and he was crying, and all Kevin could think is that he couldn’t remember the last time he had cried, and he couldn’t stop.

Neil slid around him, wrapped him in his arms, pulled him into his chest. Andrew grabbed his hands, holding tightly. His boyfriends held on to him and let him cry, and when it finally stopped, when his face felt raw and his chest ached, he looked up, and Andrew was gazing at him so softly, and it wasn’t a look Kevin had seen before. 

“I didn’t know,” Andrew said, rubbing his thumbs soothingly in Kevin’s palms. “I didn’t know this mattered to you. I would have done something - we could have done something sooner. I am sorry.” 

“I didn’t know either,” Kevin whispered. “Not really. Not till Aaron said that and I just...it never really got out of my head after that.” Kevin tightened his hands in Andrew’s and tilted his head against Neil’s. “I felt stupid for feeling that way because I have no doubts - _none_ \- in our relationship. I didn’t want to say anything. I know marriage doesn’t matter, not for us. It shouldn’t matter to me. I don’t _want_ it to matter to me.”

“But it does matter to you,” Neil said softly at his shoulder. 

“Yes. It does” Kevin said, and his sigh came out as a shudder as he confessed what he had been trying so hard not to acknowledge, even to himself.

They sat there a moment, the three of them, breathing in Kevin’s revelation, adjusting to the fact that they had missed it, that the hurt had been there the whole time, buried deep. That Kevin had been suffering alone. That they could now, maybe, do something about it. 

“Okay, first,” Andrew said, and he released one of Kevin’s hands to grab one of Neil’s. “Neil, would you do me the great honor of getting a divorce with me?”

Neil’s head popped up, and he tightened an arm around Kevin. “Fuck yeah I will,” he said fiercely.

“Fantastic,” Andrew said, leaning over to kiss Neil briefly, and then he pulled a little at both of their hands, until they were looking at him.

“I love you. Both of you. I love you so much that these words feel stupid in my mouth. They are inadequate. I have said I would marry you both if I could, and I mean it. Domestic partnership is marriage in all but name, and it is something we can have together. The three of us. As it should be. Kevin. Neil. Do you want to move to Somerville with me and register as domestic partners?”

Kevin thought he might be crying again, like an idiot, and maybe it was because Andrew had never said _I love you_ before, but he didn’t care because he was also nodding, and he managed a choked “ _Yes,”_ and then Andrew was surging forward and kissing him and Neil had his arms around both of them, and Neil was saying _“yes, yes yes,”_ and _“I love you assholes,”_ and laughing and it was fucking beautiful. 

Kevin didn’t believe in a god, not in any sort of way, but in that moment he was sending up nonsensical prayers to the heavens as he smiled through his tears and the fervent kisses of his boyfriends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY DUDES! 
> 
> [THIS](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/us/somerville-polyamorous-domestic-partnership.html/) is the NY Times article, and YES it is real! 
> 
> If it's not clear, the link Bee sent Andrew in the last chapter was to this article.
> 
> Somerville, MA for the fucking win. 
> 
> Also, for funsies, [THIS](https://www.redfin.com/MA/Somerville/140-Highland-Rd-02144/home/8698615/) is Andrew's favorite house.


	14. epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little epilogue for your sweet summer heart. 
> 
> Or, a love letter to Somerville, MA.

It took some time.

Neil and Andrew began the process for the divorce the day after they got back to Boston. They hired a lawyer, because even in a no-fault divorce there were hoops to jump through, and they didn’t have time to figure them out on their own with pre-season training in full swing. Danica Gonzales had come highly recommended, and when Andrew explained what they wanted to do and why, she had blinked once, twice, and then a smile had spread across her face, and she’d said, “Leave it to me.”

Danica wrote up their separation agreement, drafted their Affidavit of Irretrievable Breakdown, gathered their marriage certificate and financial records, guided them through the joint petition for divorce. With their paperwork filed, a divorce hearing was scheduled, and Andrew stood next to Kevin and Neil - Danica at their side - as the judge asked a few bored questions before stamping his approval on their request. Neil whooped and pulled Andrew into an exuberantly thorough kiss, before turning to Kevin and tugging him down to do the same. Danica cackled, and told them later over drinks that the look on the poor judge’s face had been priceless.

Still, after that, it took some time. 

The hearing wasn’t the end: it would be another 120 days before their divorce was finalized. In the meantime, they listed the Boston brownstone, and started house hunting in Somerville - they couldn’t file for domestic partnership in a city they didn’t live in. They looked at Andrew’s favorite house first, and they loved it, but Andrew insisted they view at least three more options. Later that day they went back to the first house, put in a cash offer, and signed the papers that night. The brownstone sold, the new house purchase finalized, movers were hired, and 45 days later Andrew and Kevin and Neil lived in Somerville - the only city in the United States that legally recognized their relationship. 

75 more days to go. (They went to work, they went to training, they went running, they made dinner.)

50 more days to go. (They had home games, they had away games, they had a housewarming party - Neil had insisted.) 

30 more days to go. (They went to the farmers market, they volunteered at the youth shelter, they read books.)

15 days to go. (They kissed, they argued, they made up, they had sex.)

5 days to go. (They did all the things they always did: their days, their weeks, their lives - together.)

And then finally,  _ finally _ , it was February 7th. A Sunday. It was 120 days later, their day off, it was snowing, and finally,  _ finally _ there were no more days to go. 

For as complicated as all the preparations had been - the divorce, the move - the actual process to file for domestic partnership was anticlimactic: it was a one page document to be notarized and mailed. That was it. So, on February 7th, the three of them curled up together on their oversized leather couch, a fire blazing away in the hearth. Andrew had procured a bottle of the same wine they’d had the night he told them about Somerville, and they sipped their wine as Kevin read the requirements out loud.

“Alright loves, so. We are all at least eighteen and mentally competent?”

“Check!” Neil said. 

“We are in - and I quote - ‘a relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment and intend to remain in such a relationship’?” Kevin continued. 

“Yes,” Andrew said, his voice warm.

Neil smiled, nodding. “Yes, of course yes. I fucking love Somerville.”

“We consider ourselves to be a family, and we reside together?” Kevin read.

“Always,” Andrew agreed.

“And...none of us is married?” Kevin finished. 

“I’m not married,” Neil announced. He turned to Andrew. “Are you married?”

“Nope,” Andrew said, grinning into his wine. 

“Definitely not married,” Neil confirmed.

“Brilliant,” Kevin said, smiling. “Now we just need -”

Kevin was interrupted by Andrew’s phone buzzing insistently on the coffee table. He checked it, then announced, “Danica’s here.”

The three of them hopped up and met their lawyer at the door, and she grinned at them, shaking snow off her coat. “You boys ready?”   


“Yes,” all three of them said at exactly the same time, and Danica cackled at them as Andrew shoved Neil into Kevin. 

“Let’s do this then,” she smiled. 

Andrew handed her a glass of wine, and they huddled around the kitchen island, printing their names and signing one by one under Danica’s approving eye, and then she pulled out her notary’s seal and stamped the paper, signing and dating it.

“Done!” she announced, and they cheers-ed, clinking glasses. Danica stuck around to finish her glass, refusing to let Andrew pay her and ignoring their invitation for a second glass as she backed out the door. “Listen, you tipped me big enough after the divorce that I’d gladly tromp over here in the snow at least three more times to notarize something for you, so, use that knowledge wisely.” She wiggled her eyebrows, slipped out the door, and then paused on the steps to turn and smile up at them. “Congratulations guys, I’m really happy for you.”

Andrew closed the door, stepped to Neil and Kevin, and there were kisses and arms wrapped around each other, and it was warm and happy and right. After a while they pulled apart, and Neil carefully folded the form around a check for the fees, tucked it into the waiting envelope, and winked at them as he licked it closed. 

They had decided ahead of time to walk into town to one of the public mailboxes and stop for dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant on the way back. As they shrugged into coats and boots and scarves, there was a knock at the door. “Maybe Danica forgot something?” Neil suggested. Kevin shrugged, and Andrew threw the front door open and dragged the two of them onto the porch, and,  _ oh. _

They were all there. All of them. Their family. 

Wymack and Bee and Abby stood to the side, beaming at them. Nicky and Aaron were there, Katelyn and Erik tucked to their sides and a double stroller for the girls. Renee and Allison, Matt and Dan - even Jean and Jeremy - they were all there, wrapped in coats and scarfs and hats, smiling and dusted in snowflakes. 

“We’re here to go see about mailing a letter,” Wymack said gruffly, and he was looking at his son.

Kevin felt Neil tuck a hand into his, and he looked down at him. “Did you know about this?”

Neil shook his head, his eyes wide and they both turned to Andrew. “You did this,” Kevin said. “You didn’t want to make it a big deal I thought.”

Andrew stepped towards them, raised a hand to Kevin’s cheek and pressed his fingers there, tucked the other hand behind Neil’s ear, and he looked at his boyfriends. “It is a big deal though,” he said quietly, just for them. Kevin nodded, blinking back tears, and Neil sighed happily next to him. 

“Andrew, you are a sap,” Kevin huffed softly.

“Yes,” Andrew agreed, and he kissed him, and then Neil, and they stood there, surrounded by everyone that mattered, for once not caring that they had an audience as they traded kisses and quiet words before linking arms and walking to the mailbox with their family in the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [the Somerville domestic partnership registration form](https://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/domestic-partnership-registration-form.pdf)

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on tumblr if ya wanna: [justadreamfox](https://justadreamfox.tumblr.com/)


End file.
